■1  |i;i! 


fl^. 


nV 


LIFE 


Jean  Paul  Frederic  Richter, 


COMPILED  FROM   VARIOUS  SOURCES. 


PRECEDED   BY  HIS 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


By    ELIZA    BUCKMINSTER    LEE. 


"  I  would  gladly,  after  my  death,  have  that,  which  has  never  yet  happened 
to  any  author,  all  ray  thoughts  given  to  the  world,  —  not  one  should  be  con- 
cealed."—Jean  Paul. 


THIRD   ariTK'N. 


BOSTON : 

TICKNOR     AND     FIELDS 

1864. 


m 


J. 


/^^j.^6C. 


2j^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1864,  by 

TICK  NOR     AND     FIELDS, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


University   Press: 

Welch,    Bigelow,   and  Company, 

Cambridge. 


To 


The  beloved  and  ever-present  memory  of  her  whose  last 
gift   of  a   German    Bible   first   led   to   the   study 
of  the  German  tongue,   I    dedicate   this 
imperfect   proof  of  that   study 
and  inadequate  expres- 
sion   of    that 
love. 


is^^V^^^e.f 


PREFACE 


TO    THE    THIRD    EDITION. 


T  is  now  twenty-two  years  since  the  First 
Edition  of  the  "  Life  of  Jean  Paul "  was 
pubhshed,  and  in  the  altered  condition  of 
our  country  it  seems  almost  an  intrusion  and  an 
impertinence  to  expect  such  a  book  to  be  received 
with  favor ;  for  what  is  nearest  touches  us  most, 
and  our  hearts  beat  more  painfully  at  domestic 
tragedies,  of  which  we  have  had  so  many,  than  at 
the  crowded  anguish  of  distant,  though  kindred 
cities.  But  in  giving  our  hearts  to  the  great,  to 
the  altogether  absorbing  and  tremendous  interests 
of  the  passing  time,  we  may  not  neglect  the  way- 
side flowers,  the  little  gems  of  nature  which  are 
scattered  in  such  profusion  at  our  feet. 

Carlyle  says  of  Jean  Paul :  "  To  old  English, 
alike  with  new,  such  a  man  as  this,  in  such  days 
as  these,  cannot  be  too  generally  known.    Let  who- 


VI  PREFACE. 

ever  has  a  sense  for  him  worship  him  as  he  will,  — 
^^'ithout  fear  of  excess  in  that  direction  !  Amid 
the  clang  of  our  steam-machinery  and  money-get- 
ting, in  our  toiling  and  slaving  great,  but  dumb  and 
deaf,  most  tragic  English  "  industrial  world,"  Jean 
Paul,  wherever  found,  will  be  a  blessed  element ; 
like  a  Httle  pot  of  violets  in  the  window-sill  of  some 
huge  workhouse  and  cyclops-smithy,  reminding  this 
man  and  that  of  many  sweet  forgotten  tilings,  and 
very  well  worth  its  room  there." 

Boston,  March  17,  1864. 


f^%?il 


PREFACE 


TO    THE    FIRST    EDITION. 


HE  following  pages  are  presented  to  the 
reader  as  containing  an  authentic  life  of 
Jean  Paul,  although  they  are  not  a  literal 
translation  of  any  one  of  the  biographies  of  the 
great  German  Poet. 

It  is  well  known  that  he  was  the  most  frank 
and  unreserved  of  authors,  and  that  he  has  inter- 
woven, in  all  his  romances,  much  of  his  personal 
experience.  When,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life, 
he  began  his  great  comic  romance  of  Nicholas  Mar- 
graf^  or  Poetry  from  the  Life  of  an  Apothecary^ 
he  undertook,  at  the  same  time,  as  a  parallel  or 
companion  piece,  his  Autobiography,  or  Truth  from 
my  oivn  Life,  intending  to  interweave  the  tivo,  as 
the  romance  and  reality  of  one  life.  Hence  re- 
sults the  comic  tone,  and  the  apparent  affectation 
of  speaking  in  the  third  person  in  his  Autobiogra- 


vm  PREFACE. 

phy,  whicli  was  continued  only  to  his  thirteenth 
yeai'.  He  found,  perhaps,  that  it  was  only  in 
childhood  he  could  idealize  his  own  life,  and  do 
that  better  in  his  fictitious  heroes  than  when  he 
was  avowedly  his  own. 

The  first  part  of  the  following  Life  is  as  literal 
and  as  accurate  a  translation  of  Richter's  oivn  bi- 
ography as  I  am  able  to  make ;  tlie  mystification, 
already  mentioned,  has  added  obscurity  to  the  "  be- 
wildering conceits "  with  which  he  usually  illus- 
trates his  "wdt  and  his  wisdom.  My  desire  to 
preserve,  as  much  as  possible,  the  peculiarity  of 
the  original  has  perhaps  given  to  the  English  a 
German  dress,  which,  I  trust,  is  thrown  oif  in  the 
remaining  parts  of  the  work. 

The  Life  is  continued  from  Wahrheit  aus  Jean 
PauVs  Lehen^  — "  Truth  from  the  Life  of  Jean 
Paul  "  ;  Spazier's  "  Biographical  Commentary  "  ; 
and  Paul's  correspondence  with  his  friends.  The 
materials  furnished  from  these  sources  I  have 
drawn  out,  and  woven  too;etlier  again  with  the 
same  threads,  although  in  a  different  form ;  and 
my  embarrassments,  which  have  not  been  small, 
have  arisen  from  the  abundance  of  the  materials, 
and  fhe  difficulty  of  selection,  where  I  wished  the 
reader  should  enjoy  the  whole.     But  as  the  whole 


PREFACE.  ix 

is  comprised  in  scarcely  less  than  twenty  volumes, 
I  have  selected  only  such  parts  of  the  letters  as 
would  throw  light  upon  Jean  Paul's  personal  con- 
cerns, and  explain  the  peculiarities  of  his  char- 
acter. 

Should  German  scholars  find  any  discrepancy 
in  the  extracts  from  the  letters,  the  reason  may 
be,  that  I  have  translated,  as  happened  to  be  con- 
venient, from  three  different  versions ;  from  Otto's 
and  Spazier's  selections,  and  from  Jean  Paul's  cor- 
respondence with  Otto. 

August  12,  1842. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION. 


Sketch  of  the  Fichtelgebirge,  the  Birthplace  of  Rich- 

TER 1 


PART    I. 

THE  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

CHAPTER   I. 
WuNSiEDEL.  —  Birth.  —  Grandparents 9 

CHAPTER    II. 

Which  includes  the  Time  from  August,  1775,  to  January, 
1776. — Joditz,  —  Village  Idyls 23 

CHAPTER   III. 

Schwarzenbach-on-the-Saale.  —  First  Kiss.  —  Rector.  — 
The  Lord's  Supper 71 


CONTENTS. 


PAKT  11. 

FROM   JEAN  PAUL'8   ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  HOF  GYMNASIUM, 
TILL   AFTER   HIS    FIRST   VISIT   IN   WEIMAR. 

CHAPTER    I. 

Remarks  upon  the  Autobiography. — Removal  to  Schwar- 
ZEKBACH.  —  Self-Education.  —  Loss  of  Childish  Faith       89 

CHAPTER    II. 

HoF  Gymnasium.  —  School  Anecdotes.  —  Death  of  the 
Father.  —  Domestic  Troubles 101 

CHAPTER    III. 

Youthful  Friendships.  —  Werther  Period.  —  First  Book- 
making. —  "On  the  Practice  of  Thinking"   .        .        .    110 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Richter  enters  the  University  of  Leipzig.  —  Letters 
from  Leipzig.  —  Change  of  Studies.  —  Letters  to  his 
Mother 119 

CHAPTER    V. 

Extracts  from  .Journal.  —  First  Literary  Effort.  — 
Greenland  Lawsuits 136 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Extreme  Poverty.  —  First  Success.  —  Costume  Contro- 
versy          149 

CHAPTER    VII. 

Love  Passage.  —  Second  Volume  of  GREENLA]|n>  Law- 
suits. —  Pressing  Poverty.  —  Flight  from  Leipzig.  — 
Domestic  Circumstances  in  Hof.  —  Book  of  Devotion     166 


CONTENTS.  xiij 

CHAPTER    VIII. 
Christian  Otto.  —  Studies.  —  Herman.  —  His  Death         .    171 

CHAPTER    IX. 

Adam  von  Oerthel.  —  Residence  at  Topen.  —  Death  of 
HIS  Friend.  —  Change  of  Views 181 

CHAPTER    X. 

RiCHTER  TAKES  A    SCHOOL    AT    SCHWARZENBACH.  —  METHOD 

OF  Instruction. — Female  Pupils  and  Friends        .        .    192 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Richter's  first  Serious  Work.  —  "  The  Little  School- 
master Wuz." — "The  Invisible  Lodge."  —  First  Suc- 
cess. —  Sabbath  Weeks  of  Life.  —  "  Hesperus  "      .        .    207 

CHAPTER    XII. 

Richter  visits  Bayreuth.  —  The  Jew  Emanuel.  —  The 
Original  of  Clotilda.  —  "  Siebenkas."  —  Letter  from 
Septimus  Fixlein 225 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

Letters  from  Weimar.  —  Letter  from  Madam  von  Kalb. 
—  Richter  prepares  to  go  to  Weimar     ....    234 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

First  Visit  in  Weimar.  —  Letters  from  Weimar.  —  Goe- 
the. —  Herder.  —  Schiller.  —  Wieland     ....    239 


CHAPTER    XV. 

Madam  von  Kalb.  —  Letters.  —  Close  of  Richteb's  Inti- 
macy with  Madam  von  Kalb 262 


Alv  CONTENTS. 

PART    III. 

FROM  JEAN  Paul's  first  visit  in  weimar  to  his 

FINAL   RESIDENCE   IN   BAYREUTH. 

CHAPTER    I. 

Prince  Hohenlohe.  —  Madam  von  Krudener.  —  Letters. 

—  "  Jubelsenior."  —  "  Campanek  Thal  "    ....    261 

CHAPTER    II. 

RiCHTER    VISITS    THE    FrAUZENBATH    IN    EgER.  —  DeATH    OF 

HIS  JIother.  —  Emilie  von  Beklespsh.  —  Removal  from 
HoF  TO  Leipzig 270 

CHAPTER    III. 

Residence  in  Leipzig.  —  Letters.  —  Emilie  von  Berlespsh. 

—  Visits  Dresden 279 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Richter  returns  to  Weimar.  —  Wieland.  —  Goethe.  — 
Herder.  —  His  Attachment  to  Jean  Paul.  —  Philoso- 
phy. —  Madam  von  Kalb 292 

CHAPTER    V. 

Richter  visits  the  Court  op  Hildburghausen.  —  Mademoi- 
selle von  F.  —  The  four  Sister  Princesses.  —  Dedica- 
tion of  Titan.  —  Visits  Berlin 306 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Richter  removes  to  Berlin.  —  Introduction  to  Caroline 
Meyer.  —  The  Meyer  Family.  —  The  "  Verlobung  "      ,    317 

CHAPTER    VII. 

Eichter's  Petition  to  the  King  of  Prussia. —  Marriage. 

—  Caroline's  Letters  from  Weimar         ....    830 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

Residence  in  Meiningen.  —  Letters.  —  Birth  of  Richter's 
FIRST  Child.  —  Dog's  Petition 338 

CHAPTER    IX. 
Titan 346 

CHAPTER    X. 

Richter  leaves  Meiningen.  —  Removes  to  Coburg.  — 
Birth  of  his  Son.  —  Death  of  Herder.  —  "  Flegel- 
JAHKE."  —  Bayreuth       . 856 


PART  IV. 

FROM  JEAN  Paul's  residence  in  bayreuth  to  his 

DEATH. 

N 

CHAPTER    I. 

Richter  removes  to  Bayreuth.  —  Social  Position.  — 
Personal  Appearance  and  Habits.  —  Family.  —  Letter 
FROM  his  Eldest  Daughter 367 

CHAPTER   II. 

"Introduction  to  ^Esthetics."  —  "Freedom  Pamphlet." 
—  "Lev'^ana."  —  Richter's  View  of  Napoleon.  —  Comic 
Works.  —  Letter  to  General  Bebnadotte      .        .        .    377 

CHAPTER    III. 

Pecuniary  Embarrassments.  —  Prince  Dalberg.  —  Paul 
receives  a  small  Pension.  —  Extract  from  Varnhagen 
von  Ense's  Memoirs 890 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Domestic  Letters.  —  Journey  to  Erlangen.  —  Journey 
TO  Nurnberq.  —  Jacobi 401 


■^ 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    V. 

KiCHTER  IX  Relation  with  the  Unhappy.  —  Letters.  — 
Maria  Forster 413 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Eichtek's  Love  of  Travelling.  —  Visits  Prince  DaI/- 
berg.  —  Visits  Heidelberg.  —  Receives  his  Doctor's 
Diploma.  —  Henry  Voss.  —  Animal  Magnetism       .        .    430 

CHAPTER    VII. 

Visits  MuNCHEN.  —  Richter.  —  His  Son  Max.  —  His  Melan- 
choly and  Death 445 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

Richter  visits  Dresden.  —  The  Impression  he  made  upon 
his  Relatives 454 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  purely  Comic  Works  of  Jean  Paul.  —  The  Life  of 
FiBEL.  —  Nicholas  Margraf,  or  the  Comet     .        .        .    462 

CHAPTER    X. 

'^        Richter  visits  Nurnburg   on   Account   of   his   Eyes. — 

Kanne.  —  His  Blindness.  —  Last  Letters.  —  "Selina"      471 


CONCLUSIOl^ 489 

APPENDIX 603 


INTRODUCTION 


Sketch  of  the  Fichtelgebirge,  the  Birthplace 
OF  Richter. 


IjIN  the  very  centre  of  Germany,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Bavaria,  rises  that  mountain  region  called 
the  "  Fichtelgebirge  "  or  Pine  Mountain,  which 
takes  its  name  from  the  pine  woods  with 
which  its  summit  is  crowned.  The  author  from  whom 
I  have  taken  the  following  account  gives  it  the  name  of 
the  "  mountain  island,"  derived  from  the  isolation  in  which 
it  remains,  although  surrounded  by  mountains,  and  only 
divided  from  them  by  mountain  plains.  He  speaks  of  it 
thus  :  "  The  Fichtelgebirge,  spite  of  its  wonderful  pecu- 
liarities, is  an  unknown  and  unvisited  part  of  Germany. 
To  a  great  portion  of  the  cultivated  as  well  as  the  igno- 
rant world  its  name  is  scarcely  known.  The  trains  of 
travelling  carriages,  on  the  road  from  Munich  and  Nu- 
remberg to  Saxony,  pass  the  foot  of  the  mountain  on  the 
western  side,  and  the  travellers  throw  only  a  hasty  glance 
at  its  dark-green  crest  as  they  go  l)y.  The  troops  of 
travelling  German  youth,  with  their  staves  and  sketch- 
books, turn  away  from  its  threshold,  frightened  at  its 
gloomy  aspect." 


c^.-f'^:  L'li*£    OF'JftAN    PAUL. 

Tq  ;he  bc-soui  of  thja  mysterious  mountain  island  Jean 
Paul  Frederic  Riclitei"  leceived  his  birth ;  and,  if  eountiy 
and  climate  and  early  circumstances  exert  a  powerful  in- 
fluence on  the  character  of  the  Poet,  it  seems  a  proper 
introduction  to  his  biography  to  give  a  slight  sketch  of 
the  region  where  he  received  his  earliest  impressions, 
and  of  its  inhabitants,  among  whom  his  early  days  were 
passed. 

The  elevation  of  the  Fichtelgebirge  above  the  level  of 
the  sea  subjects  it  to  late  springs  and  cold  summers,  and 
in  winter  it  is  covered  with  perpetual  snow.  The  winter 
lingers  late  into  the  short  summer,  and  the  frosts  begin  so 
early  that  the  potatoes  are  sometimes  dug  from  the  snow, 
and  the  harvest  gathered  when  the  hands  must  be  cov- 
ered with  gloves.  Cut  off^  as  they  are,  from  the  sur- 
rounding country,  and  pressed  together  within  a  small 
compass,  so  that  they  can.  embrace  each  other  with  the 
eye  as  well  as  the  heart,  the  inhabitants  are  joined  to- 
gether in  the  closest  bonds,  and,  like  other  mountaineers, 
are  united  by  a  romantic  attachment  to  their  country. 

The  air  has  been  said  to  belong  to  the  Germans  as  the 
sea  does  to  the  English ;  but  many  of  the  German  tradi- 
tions go  far  into  the  secret  bosom  of  the  earth,  and,  among 
the  mountain  people  who  dig  for  treasures,  there  is  a  spe- 
cies of  romance  that  belongs  to  no  otlier  country. 

In  the  Fichtelgebirge,  gold,  that  object  of  intense  de- 
sire in  the  INIiddle  Ages,  had  been  found,  and  the  search 
for  it  led  to  many  valuable  mineral  discoveries.  Gold  is 
no  longer  sought  there,  but  the  traveller  hears  continually, 
in  the  solitude,  the  hollow  echo  of  the  blows  of  the  man 
of  the  mountains,  and  sees  arise,  behind  a  wall  of  ver- 
dure, the  smoke  of  the  smelting-furnaces  for  iron,  vitriol, 
and  tin.     The  beautiful  fountains  and  fresh  streams,  that 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

burst  out  in  every  little  hollow  and  green  nook,  are  a 
constant  source  of  delight;  and  the  sweet  and  soothing 
sound  of  running  water  is  heard,  whenever  the  blows  of 
the  hammer  and  the  roaring  of  the  furnace  are  hushed. 
Indeed,  that  which  gives  its  peculiar  character  to  this 
region  are  the  numerous  springs  which  everywhere 
freshen  the  soil  and  impart  that  vivid  green  to  the  hills 
whose  summits  are  crowned  with  the  darkest  and  most 
beautiful  firs. 

The  inhabitants  of  these  heights  are  a  pious,  true,  and 
simple  people.  Their  employment  gives  a  certain  pride 
and  self-confidence  to  their  character,  and  a  grave  and  re- 
ligious seriousness  to  their  manners,  although  they  are  often 
excited  and  heated  like  the  element  in  which  they  work. 
The  most  numei-ous  and  contented  class  are  the  wood-cut- 
ters. Many  young  men  leave  a  mechanical  employment, 
irresistibly  drawn,  by  the  singing  of  birds  and  tlie  charms 
of  the  fresh  air,  to  a  life  in  the  pine  woods,  where  they 
have  no  wants  but  simple  nourishment  and  necessary 
clothing.  But  the  inhabitants  of  places  where  manufac- 
tures are  carried  on,  like  Hof,  have  lost  somewhat  of  the 
simplicity  of  their  manners.  Many  are  engaged  in  manu- 
factures, who  live,  indeed,  like  country  people,  uniting 
some  handicraft  or  agricultural  occupation  with  their 
manufacturing  employment.  Among  them,  at  the  first 
glance,  may  be  discovered,  by  certain  peculiarities,  the 
landlord,  the  butcher,  the  baker,  and  the  miller,  and 
these  form  the  well-to-do  and  independent  class  of  citi- 
zens. The  higher  classes,  who  possess  estates  in  the 
mountain,  the  nobles,  also  retain  the  peculiarities  of  the 
country.  In  their  domestic  arrangements  a  pure  sim- 
plicity prevails,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  whole  region 
live  in  confidential  intercourse  with  each  other. 


4  LIFE  OF  JEAN  PAUL. 

In  describing  one  of  the  dwellings  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  middling  class  we  shall  give  an  idea  of  the  house 
in  which  Richter  passed  his  infancy.  The  richest  people 
live  in  substantial  stone  houses,  with  tiled  roofs  ;  but  the 
poorer  houses,  and  such  as  the  father  of  Richter  occupied, 
are  built  of  beams  of  wood  filled  up  with  mortar,  and 
thatched  with  straw,  enclosing  under  the  same  roof  the 
stables,  and  shelter  for  all  kinds  of  domestic  animals.  At 
the  entrance  of  these  humble  dwellings,  a  small  space  is 
parted  off  for  the  implements  of  agriculture.  On  the 
wall  hang  the  scythes,  sickles,  and  cart  and  sled  harnesses. 
A  door  on  one  side  leads  to  the  stalls  for  oxen  and  cows, 
and,  on  the  left,  to  the  dwelling  apartment,  and  in  the 
rear  is  the  little  dark  kitchen.  Near  the  entrance  stands 
always,  even  in  the  poorest  houses,  a  large  stove,  often  of 
china,  glazed  or  polished^  that  diffuses  its  genial  warmth 
over  the  whole  house ;  upon  the  top  are  two  ii'on  vessels, 
built  in,  for  holding  warm  water  ;  benches  are  around  the 
walls,  and  a  soi-t  of  movable  frame,  to  hang  garments 
upon,  is  placed  on  one  side.  The  walls  are  kept  clean 
and  white  by  constant  washing,  and,  as  the  apartment  is 
lighted  with  pine  knots,  there  is  a  little  funnel,  near  the 
stove,  to  carry  off  the  smoke.  The  floor  is  tiled,  with  a 
groove  in  the  centre  to  convey  away  the  water  often 
shaken  over  from  the  iron  stoves-pots. 

Near  the  window,  in  a  corner,  stands  a  large  wooden 
table,  used  for  all  purposes,  and  suiTounded  with  wooden 
stools  ;  shelves  near  the  door  contain  the  w^ooden,  iron, 
and  tin  implements  for  cooking,  dining,  &c.,  and  above 
the  door  is  a  shelf  on  which  the  great,  well-worn  Bible, 
and  the  sermon  and  psalm-book  are  laid.  Every  Satur- 
day, table,  benches,  and  all  other  utensils,  are  rubbed  and 
polished  with  white,  shining  sand. 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

All  these  conveniences  and  habits  of  cleanliness  are 
doubly  necessary,  where  a  whole  family  live  in  one  room. 
There  is,  however,  a  small  apartment,  divided  off  between 
the  stove  and  the  wall,  where  they  can  retire  for  purposes 
of  rest  or  solitude ;  and  the  bed  of  the  married  pair  some- 
times stands  in  a  small  adjoining  room,  together  with  a 
large  chest,  curiously  carved  and  ornamented,  that  de- 
scends from  father  to  son  as  an  heirloom  in  the  family. 
This  chest  contains  the  family  linen,  the  money,  the 
silver  shirt-buttons  of  the  husband,  and  necklace  of  the 
wife,  the  registers  of  marriages  and  births,  tax-bills,  and 
other  important  documents. 

The  background  of  the  premises  is  closed  by  a  cart- 
house,  swine-house,  and  large  baking-oven.  In  the  centre 
stands  a  circular  dove-house,  elevated  on  a  low  pillar. 
This  peculiar  feature  of  a  German  homestead  is  familiar 
to  those  who  have  looked  at  Retzsh's  beautiful  sketches 
of  German  life  in  the  "  Song  of  the  Bell."  Ai'ound  are 
great  piles  of  firewood  ready  split  for  the  stove,  necessary 
both  winter  and  summer,  in  a  climate  so  severe  as  that 
of  the  Fichtelgebirge.  An  orchard  near  the  house,  with 
a  little  corner  appropriated  to  kitchen  vegetables,  and  still 
another  little  corner  with  a  few  pinks,  forget-me-nots,  and 
lavender  flowers,  complete  the  domestic  picture. 

These  little  orchards  surrounding  the  houses,  the  flow- 
eiing  hedges  bordering  the  streets  and  connecting  house 
with  house  in  the  villages  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
and  the  rustic  bridges  crossing  the  frequent  streams,  give 
them  an  aspect  of  beauty,  dear  to  the  eye  of  a  painter  or 
•  lover  of  rural  scenery.  Otlier  ornaments  are  the  flower- 
ing maples  and  weeping  birch-trees,  and  the  decorated 
May-pole,  that  stands  in  the  midst  of  every  village,  and 
ai'ound  which,  on  Sundays  and  festivals,  the  dance  is  led. 


6  LIFE    OF   JEAN    PAUL. 

Not  all  the  mountain  villages  are  thus  ornamented.  In 
some,  the  presence  of  only  clumps  of  mountain  pine  give 
them  a  sombre  and  melancholy  aspect. 

The  dress  of  the  people  who  are  not  engaged  in  manu- 
factui'es  is  primitive  and  simple.  The  old  women  bind 
a  three-cornered  handkerchief  upon  the  head,  and  the 
young  weave  a  silken  band  through  the  hair.  They  wear 
a  woollen  petticoat  with  a  leathern  girdle  around  the 
waist,  through  which,  in  working  hours,  the  petticoat  is 
tucked.  Their  stockings  reach  only  to  the  ancle,  and 
the  feet  are  bare,  as  the  shoes  are  carried  in  the  hand, 
and  only  put  on  when  they  reach  the  church  door.  The 
large  straw  hat  is  also  carried  in  the  hand,  and  is  worn 
only  on  rare  occasions.  The  dress  of  the  men  is  finer 
and  more  ornamented.  Indeed,  the  women  are  almost 
serfs,  and  do  all  the  heavy  and  laborious  out-of-door  work 
of  the  family.  The  men,  it  is  true,  are  occupied  in  the 
mines,  and  in  cutting  wood  in  the  forests  for  smelting 
metals.  This  may  be  the  reason  why  the  agricultural 
labors,  and  the  care  of  the  animals,  devolve  upon  the 
women.  But  we  cannot  regret  it ;  for  this  circumstance, 
no  doubt,  gave  occasion  to  those  passages  of  tenderness, 
respect,  and  compassion  for  women,  in  the  writings  of 
Jean  Paul,  that  made  the  hearts  of  the  German  women 
his  own. 

The  festivals  of  marriage,  baptism,  Christmas,  and  the 
season  of  the  first  communion,  are  enjoyed  and  celebrated 
in  these  mountain  villages  with  the  utmost  heartiness  and 
delight ;  and  every  reader  of  Jean  Paul  will  recollect  how 
large  a  space  these  festivals  occupy  in  his  novels. 

Plain  and  simple  as  are  tlie  inhabitants  of  this  region, 
the  charm  of  romance  and  the  poetry  of  the  ancient 
superstitions  are  thickly  spread  over  it. 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

The  old  people  relate  that  good-natured  dwarfs  and 
fairies  entered  secretly  certain  families  and  brought  them 
good  fortune.  In  the  forests  are  woodmen  and  wood- 
women,  who  nourish  and  protect  those  who  have  lost 
their  way,  and,  for  a  piece  of  money,  give  them  good 
counsels.  Everywhere  around  in  the  deep  solitudes  tlie 
horn  of  the  "wild  hunter"  and  the  anvil-blows  of  the 
"  man  of  the  mountains "  are  heard. 

The  atmospheric  phenomena  of  these  regions  are  stiU 
another  source  of  excitement  to  the  imagination  of  the 
poet.  Sometimes  the  whole  mountain-tops  are  covered 
•with  vapor,  where  the  sun  is  reflected  in  infinitely  beau- 
tiful hues  long  after  it  is  below  the  horizon.  Sometimes 
the  mountain-top  presents  the  same  peculiar  rosy  hue 
that  is  seen  upon  the  Alps.  The  reader,  who  has  been 
wearied  by  Richter's  too  frequent  and  diffuse  descrip- 
tions of  atmospheric  changes,  will  find  their  source  in  the 
rare  and  beautiful  appearances  this  otherwise  sombre  sky 
often  presents.  His  weather-prophesying,  like  that  of  all 
mountain  people,  was  an  occasion  of  continual  sport  and 
pleasantry,  and  also  of  serious  attention  and  study. 

It  would  be  impossible  for  a  poet,  with  so  keen  a  sus- 
ceptibility to  all  impressions  as  Richter,  to  be  born  under 
such  influences  and  to  pass  his  youth  just  within  the 
threshold  of  a  region  so  filled  with  romance,  without  its 
having  a  powerful,  but  perhaps  secret,  influence  upon  the 
whole  man,  and  upon  the  character  of  his  genius  and 
writings.  It  makes  him  the  most  personal  of  authoi-s. 
The  fact  that  he  never  could  climb  the  heights  of  his 
birthplace  was  the  mother  of  that  infinite  longing  with 
which  he  every  moment,  even  in  the  most  cheerful  cir- 
cumstances of  his  life,  fell  back  upon  liis  youth.  "When 
easier  circumstances  permitted  him  to  travel,  he  would 


8 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


not  ascend  the  romantic  heights  of  the  Fichtelgebirge, 
lest  the  reality  should  break  the  enchanting  dream  of 
memory,  and  the  illusions  of  his  youth,  that  embellished 
the  evening  of  his  hfe  with  romantic  hues,  should  vanish. 
Late  in  life  he  returned,  after  a  short  separation,  drawn 
by  the  mountain  magnet,  to  the  place  of  his  birth.  The 
\asitor  found  him,  in  his  last  years,  in  the  little  city  and 
plain  of  Bayreuth,  at  the  southern  threshold  of  the  moun- 
tain, where  his  eye  could  always  turn  to  the  high  cradle 
of  his  infancy,  and  where  the  shadow  of  the  pines  could 
fall  upon  his  grave. 


PART    I, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


FIRST  LECTURE. 

CHAPTER    I. 
WuNsiEDEL.  —  Birth.  —  Grandpaeents. 


r  was  in  tlie  year  1763,*  about  the  same  time 
with  the  Peace  of  Hubertsburg,  that  the  pres- 
ent Professor  of  his  own  history  came  into 
the  world  ;  —  in  the  same  month  that  the 
golden  and  gray  wagtail,  the  robin-redbreast,  the  crane, 
the  red-hammer,  appeared,  and  many  snipes  and  wood- 
cocks arrived  also ;  and,  indeed,  on  the  same  day  of  the 
month,  —  in  case  any  one  should  wish  to  strew  flowers 
upon  the  cradle  of  the  new-born,  the  spoonwort  and  aspen 
hung  out  their  tender  blossoms,  —  on  the  21st  of  March  ; 
also  at  the  earliest  and  freshest  time  of  day,  —  namely,  at 
half  past  one  in  the  morning.  But  what  crowns  all  is,  that 
his  life  and  the  life  of  the  spring  began  at  the  same  mo- 
ment. This  last  circumstance,  that  the  Professor  and  the 
spring  were  born  together,  I  have  mentioned  in  conver- 
sation at  least  a  hundred  times ;  but  I  fire  it  off  here,  as  a 
salute  of  honor,  the  hundred  and  first  time,  that,  by  print- 


•  Just  a  hiindred  years  from  the  date  of  this  third  American  edition. 
1* 


lO  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

ing  it,  I  may  place  it  out  of  my  power  to  offer  again  as  a 
bon-mot  what  through  the  press  has  gone  the  rounds  of  the 
whole  world.  [So  poor  had  fortune  left  his  outward  hfe, 
that  he  delighted  to  invest  the  accident  of  his  hirth,  that 
came  with  the  spring,  with  a  poetic  meaning ;  and  this, 
through  his  whole  life,  was  a  source  of  joy,  and  threw 
a  romantic  light  over  his  whole  being.] 

It  is  a  misfortune  in  the  history  of  a  man,  even  the 
wittiest,  that  Fate  herself  has  laid  for  him  a  pun  as  a 
nest-egg ;  for  upon  this  egg  he  sits  and  broods  his  Hfe 
long,  and  strives  to  bring  something  out  of  it.  Thus,  I 
knew  a  barber  and  a  coachman,  who  both,  at  the  ques- 
tion, "  Wliat  is  your  name  ?  "  answered  with  simplicity, 
and  without  any  appearance  of  wit,  "  Your  obedient 
servant,"  or  "  Your  servant."  The  reason  was,  they 
had  the  misfortune  to  be  named  Diener  {servant),  and 
through  this  their  heads  were  indelibly  tonsured  by  a 
standing  joke,  they  were  both  condemned  to  a  perpetual 
conceit,  and  these  small-shot  of  wit  all  went  in  one  dii-ec- 
tion.  Let  us  not  hope,  my  honored  friends,  who  bear  at 
the  same  time  a  common  and  a  proper  name,  such  as 
Ochs  or  Rapinat  (both,  indeed,  Swiss),  "Wolf,  Scldegel,* 
Ilichter,t  to  surprise  such  a  double-named  man  with  any 
consequent  play  of  wit,  however  brilliant ;  tor  he  has 
lived  too  long  with  his  own  name  to  find  any  allusion 
to  it,  which  may  occur  to  the  novice,  either  new  or  sur- 
prising or  witty,  but  all  to  his  ear  is  quite  worn  out. 
Mullner  made  a  more  witty  play  u})on  words,  with  Schot- 
ten  and  Sckatten  (Scotsman,  shadow),  for  no  Scotsman 
ever  considered  himself  a  shadow,  and  no  shadow  can  be 
a  Scotsman,  for  two  vowels  separate  them  eternally. 

But  I  return  to  our  history,  and  place  myself  among 

*  A  beater.  t  A  judge. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  II 

tlic  dead,  for  all  are  out  of  the  world  who  saw  me  come 
into  it.  My  father  was  called  John  Christian  Christopher 
Eit'hter,  and  was  Tertius  *  and  organist  in  Wunsiedel. 
My  mother,  who  was  tlie  daughter  of  the  cloth-weaver, 
John  Paul  Kuhn,  in  Hof,  was  named  Sopliia  Rosina. 
The  day  after  my  birth,  I  was  baptized  by  the  Senior 
Apel.  One  godfather  was  the  above-mentioned  John 
Paul ;  the  other,  John  Frederic  Theime,  a  bookbinder, 
who  did  not  know  at  that  time  to  what  quantities  of  his 
own  handicraft  he  lent  his  name.  From  these  two  spon- 
sors was  the  name  John  Paul  Frederic  shot  together ; 
the  grandfatherly  half  I  have  translated  into  Jean  Paid, 
and  have  thereby  gained  a  name,  the  reasons  for  which 
shall  be  fully  made  known  in  future  lectures. 

But  now  let  the  hero  and  subject  of  these  historical 
lectures  lie  and  sleep  securely  in  the  cradle  and  on  the 
mother's  breast ;  for  in  the  long  morning  sleep  of  "life 
there  is  nothing  interesting  for  the  universal  history  of 
the  world,  and  he  may  sleep  until  I  have  spoken  of  those 
after  whom  my  heart  and  my  pen  yearn,  —  my  ancestors, 
my  father,  mother,  and  grandparents. 

My  father  was  the  son  of  the  Rector  of  the  Gymnasium 
in  Neustadt  on  the  Culm.  We  know  nothing  of  my 
grandfather,  but  that  he  Avas  in  the  highest  degree  poor 
and  pious ;  and,  should  one  of  his  two  remaining  grand- 
sons come  to  Neustadt,  the  inhabitants  would  receive  him 
with  grateful  joy  and  love.  The  old  would  relate  how 
conscientious  and  severe  his  life  and  instructions  had 
been,  and  yet  how  cheerful.     They  yet  show  a  bench, 

*  Tertiu?  is  master  of  the  third  class  in  a  Gymnasium.  A  German 
Gymnasium  has  eight  classes.  The  classes  are  an-anged  in  an  in- 
verse order:  thus,  the  first  is  taught  by  the  rector;  the  second,  by  the 
conrector;  the  third,  by  the  subrector;  the  fourth,  by  th^  qaintus, 
&c.  — Tr. 


12  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

behind  the  organ,  where  every  Sunday  he  kneeled  to 
pray,  and  a  hollow  or  grotto  in  the  above-named  little 
Culm,*  that  he  formed  for  himself  to  pray  in  (at  this 
distance  of  time  it  stands  open),  and  in  which  his  more 
ardent  son  sported  with  the  Muses  and  Penury.  The 
evening  twilight  was  a  daily  harvest  for  him,  in  which, 
for  some  dark  hours,  he  walked  up  and  down  the  poor 
school-room,  weighing  the  produce  of  to-day  and  the  seed 
that  was  to  be  sown  to-morrow,  under  the  influence  of 
earnest  prayer.  This  school-house  was  a  prison,  not  in- 
deed of  bread  and  water,  but  of  bread  and  beer ;  far  more 
than  these,  of  some  little  contentment  of  the  most  pious 
character,  which  a  rectorate  could  not  give,  although  united 
with  the  offices  of  chanter  f  and  organist.  But  notwith- 
standing the  fellowship  of  united  ofhces,  it  produced  only, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  florins  annually.  At  this  common 
hunger-fountain  for  Bayreutish  schoolmasters  the  man 
who  had  been  chanter  in  Rehau  thirty-five  years  long 
stood  and  drank.  Certainly  he  would  have  gained  a 
couple  of  bites  or  pennies  more,  had  he  been  promoted 
to  the  office  of  a  country  pastor.  As  often  as  scholars 
exchange  their  dress,  that  is,  from  the  school  mantle  to 
the  priest's  mantle,  they  receive  a  little  better  food,  as  the 
silkworm  at  the  casting  of  her  skin  receives  richer  nour- 
ishment ;  so  that  such  a  man,  by  increasing  his  labors, 
may  so  increase  his  salary  as  to  be  inferior  only  to  a 
statesman  with  expectancies  or  gratuities ;  or,  in  general, 

*  The  Culmberg,  near  Neustadt,  is  a  solitary  conical  hill,  on  the 

southeastern   entrance   to  the   Fichtelgebirge.      It  is  surrounded  by 

pines  that  give  it  a  dark-blue  appearance,  easily  distinguished  from 

Bayreuth.     We  can  easily  believe  that  the  poetic  eye  of  Richter  was 

■  turned  to  this,  his  pious  grandfather's  altar,  when  near  his  cot- 

~  wrote  in  the  open  air.  —  Tr. 
often  ,„  .„ 

tage  study  tie 

f  Director  of  the  ni.. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  13 

to  some  high  functionary  in  i-etirement,  whose  staflf  of 
emoluments  is  carried  through  the  whole  score  of  the 
chamber,  and  that  even  during  all  the  pauses  of  the 
instrument. 

In  the  mean  time,  my  grandfather  visited  the  parents 
of  his  pupils  in  the  afternoons,  more  on  account  of  the 
latter  than  the  former,  taking  a  bit  of  bread  in  his  pocket, 
from  the  above-mentioned  beer  and  bread  by  which  he 
lived,  and  receiving,  as  a  guest,  only  his  little  can  of  beer. 
But  at  last  it  happened,  in  the  year  1763,  exactly  the 
year  of  my  birth,  on  the  Gth  of  August,  probably  through 
especial  connection  with  higher  powers,  he  was  promoted 
to  the  most  important  station,  one  for  which  the  rectorate, 
and  the  city,  and  all  the  Culmberg  itself,  could  easily  be 
given  up  ;  and  when  he  numbered  seventy-six  years,  four 
months,  and  eight  days,  he  was  actually  promoted  to  the 
station  above  mentioned  in  the  Neustadt  chiu-chyard.  His 
wife,  twenty  years  before,  had  preceded  him,  occupying  a 
rival  station,  and  waited  for  him.  My  parents  went  with 
me,  then  a  child  of  five  months  old,  to  visit  his  dying  bed. 
A  clergyman  who  was  present,  as  my  father  has  often  told 
me,  said,  "  Let  the  old  Jacob  lay  his  hand  upon  the  child, 
that  he  may  bless  him."  I  was  placed  in  the  bed,  and  he 
laid  his  hand  upon  my  head.  Pious  grandfather !  often 
have  I  thought  of  thy  cold,  blessing  hand,  when  fate  has 
led  me  out  of  dark  into  bi'ighter  hours  ;  and  I  needed  to 
hold  fast  my  faith  in  thy  blessing,  in  this  world,  pene- 
trated, governed,  and  animated  by  wonders  and  spirits. 

My  father  was  born  in  Neustadt,  December  IGth,  1727  ; 
—  more,  I  should  say,  to  tlie  winter  of  life  than,  like  my- 
self, to  the  spring,  had  not  his  excellent  nature  had  the 
power  to  carve  a  good  haven  from  an  iceberg.  But  the 
Lyceum  in  Wunsiedel  could  only  be  enjoyed  or  endured 


14  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

bj  him,  as  by  Luther  the  school  at  Eisenach,  as  an  alum- 
nus, or  poor  scholar ;  for  when  my  grandfather's  salary, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  florins  a  yeai',  was  divided  among 
many  brothers  and  sisters*  his  part  was  exactly  nothing, 
or  at  most  alumnus-bread ;  therefore  he  went  to  the  Gym- 
nasium at  Ratisbon,  not  only  to  hunger  in  a  larger  city, 
but  to  cultivate  the  peculiar  floiver  of  his  nature,  as  well 
as  the  leaves,  and  this  was  the  science  of  music. 

In  the  chapel  of  the  Prince  of  Thurn  and  Taxis,  the 
well-known  connoisseur  and  patron  of  music,  he  could 
serve  the  saint  for  whose  adoration  he  was  born.  Forty 
years  later  piano-pla}'ing  and  general  bass  made  him  a 
favorite  composer  of  church  music  in  the  principality  of 
Bayreuth.  On  the  evening  of  Good  Friday,  he  often  de- 
lighted himself  and  us,  his  cliildren,  with  the  exhibition 
of  that  holy  power  of  music,  the  tones  of  which  even  to 
this  day  elevate  and  sanctify  souls  in  the  Catholic  Church. 
I  must,  alas !  acknowledge  that,  when  I  was  lately  in  Kat- 
isbon,  among  the  antiques  and  forgotten  relics  of  that 
place,  the  oppressed  life  of  my  father  was  the  most  pre- 
cious of  all ;  and,  when  I  was  in  the  palace  of  Thurn  and 
Taxis,  and  in  the  nari-ow  streets  where  two  portly  persons 
could  scarcely  pass  each  other,  I  thought  of  his  small 
means,  and  the  narrow  passages  of  his  youthful  life.  In- 
stead of  the  delightful  science  of  music,  he  studied  theol- 
ogy, both  in  Jena  and  Erlangen ;  perhaps  for  no  better 
reason  than  tljis,  to  suffer  himself  to  be  plagued  for  a  long 
time,  even  till  his  thirty-second  year,  as  a  domestic  teacher 
in  Bayreuth,  where  his  son  collected  these  particulars  ; 
for,  in  17G0,  he  obtained  from  the  city  authorities  the 
post  of  organist  and  Tertius  in  Wunsiedel.  In  this  case, 
he  obtained  under  the  Margrave  of  Bayreuth  a  better  and 
earlier  fortune  than  that  candidate  in  Hanover,  of  whom 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  15 

I  have  read,  who,  at  seventy  years  old,  had  received  no 
better  place  in  the  church  than  what  the  churchyard  offered. 

Some  of  my  hearers  may  fear,  from  what  I  have  said, 
that  I  shall  bring  my  father  before  them  with  a  pitiful 
aspect,  like  some  modern  ultra-Christians,  who  cover  their 
faces  with  a  tear-steeped  handkerchief.  On  the  contrary, 
he  lived,  as  it  were,  on  wings,  and  was  sought  by  the 
families  of  Brandenburg  and  Schopf  as  the  most  agree- 
able of  companions,  always  full  of  wit  and  jests  and  amus- 
ing anecdotes.  The  faculty  of  social  wit  accompanied 
him  through  life  ;  even  when  in  his  office  he  passed  for  a 
very  severe  pastor,  and  as  it  was  called,  in  the  jjulpit,  for 
a  preacher  of  the  Law.  In  his  native  city  he  won  his 
relations  by  his  exciting  preaching,  and  in  Hof,  in  Voigt- 
land,  something  yet  more  important,  —  a  bride,  and,  what 
was  far  more  difficult,  the  rich  relations  of  his  bride.  If 
a  citizen  who,  through  cloth-weaving  and  veil-selling,  had 
become  wealthy,  could  not  deny,  of  his  two  only  daugh- 
ters, the  most  beautiful,  the  most  delicate  and  tenderly 
nurtured,  and  withal  the  most  beloved,  to  a  needy  Tertius, 
who  dwelt,  with  his  creditors,  a  whole  day's  journey  from 
them,  so,  on  the  other  side,  tliis  Tertius  could  only  with 
the  reputation  of  great  desert  and  shining  pulpit  gifts,  and 
agreeable  personal  appearance,  gain  both  daughter  and 
parents.  The  elevated  soul  of  the  cloth-weaver  must 
have  raised  him  above  his  cloth  and  his  money,  and 
talents  and  spiritual  gifts  must  have  appeared  to  him 
of  more  worth  than  the  shining  heaps  of  common  wealth. 

The  13th  of  October,  1761,  the  beloved  went  as  a 
bride,  with  all  her  treasures,  into  his  little  narrow  school- 
house,  that  fortunately  was  not  made  narrower  by  furni- 
ture. His  cheerful  life,  his  indifference  to  money,  united 
with  his  entire  confidence  in  his  housekeeper,  left  in  the 


l6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Tertius'  shell  room  enougli  for  all  travellers  from  Hof, 
who  wished  to  rest  there.  My  mother,  for  such  were 
married  people  at  that  time,  and  there  are  a  few  such 
now,  troubled  herself  as  little  as  my  father  on  account  of 
this  emptiness. 

In  my  historical  readings,  hunger  will  accompany  the 
steps  of  my  hero,  and  will  indeed  be  mentioned  as  often 
as  feasting  in  Thiimmel's  Travels,  or  tea-drinking  in 
Richardson's  "  Clarissa."  I  cannot  but  choose  to  say  to 
Poverty,  "  Be  welcome !  so  thou  come  not  too  late  in 
life."  Riches  weigh  more  heavily  upon  talent  than  pov- 
erty. Under  gold  mountains  and  thrones  lie  buried 
many  spiritual  giants.  When  to  the  flame  that  the  nat- 
ural heat  of  youth  kindles  the  oil  of  riches  is  added, 
little  more  than  the  ashes  of  the  phoenix  remains  ;  and 
only  a  Goethe  has  had  the  forbearance  not  to  singe  his 
phoenix  wings  at  the  sun  of  Fortune.  For  much  gold, 
the  poor  historical  Professor  would  not  have  had  much  in 
his  youth.  Fate  does  with  the  poet  as  we  with  singing- 
birds,  and  overhangs  the  cage  with  darkness  until  he  sings 
the  tune  we  would  have  him  sing.  But  preserve,  just 
Providence,  the  old  man  fi'ora  want!  for  hoary  years 
have  already  bent  him  low,  and  he  can  no  longer  stand 
upright  with  the  youth,  and  bear  heavy  burdens  on  his 
head.  The  old  man  needs  rest  in  the  earth  even  while 
he  is  upon  it,  for  he  can  use  only  the  present  and  a  little 
of  the  future,  for  the  future  does  not  reflect  for  him  as  in 
a  glass  the  blooming  present.  Only  two  steps  from  the 
couch  of  his  last  and  deepest  repose,  with  no  other  curtain 
than  the  flowers  about  the  grandfather's  chair  of  old  age, 
he  would  yet  slumber  and  rest  a  little,  and,  lialf-asleep, 
open  his  eyes  once  more  upon  the  ancient  stars  and  fields 
of  his  youth  ;  and  I  have  no  objection,  —  since  he  has  al- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  Xf 

ready  made  his  best  preparation  for  the  other  world,  —  if 
now  in  the  evening,  he  should  rejoice  over  his  breakfast, 
and  in  the  morning  take  comfort  in  his  bed,  and  now, 
when  he  is  a  second  time  a  child,  the  world  should  appear 
again  under  the  mnocent  form  of  delight  in  which  it  first 
came  before  him. 

Only  one  false  resolution  of  my  lather's  could  we  place 
perhaps  to  the  account  of  liis  necessities,  that,  instead  of 
wooing  with  his  whole  heart  the  muse  of  sweet  sounds,  he 
gave  himself,  like  a  monk,  to  the  office  of  preaching,  and 
suffered  his  genius  for  music  to  be  buried  in  a  village 
church.  Indeed,  the  church,  according  to  the  opinion  of 
my  grandparents,  was  then  the  provision-ship,  and  the 
needy  son  of  the  Muses  sought  to  run  into  the  quiet 
haven  of  the  pulpit.  But  whoever,  is  not  forced  by  ne- 
cessity, but  feels  within  him,  growing  with  his  growth,  an 
inclination  and  declination  of  his  magnetic  needle,  let  him 
follow  its  pointing,  trusting  to  it,  as  to  a  compass  in  the 
desert. 

Had  the  present  Professor  of  his  own  history  imitated 
his  father  as  he  desired,  he  would  now,  instead  of  these 
lectures,  be  holding  sacred  discourses,  casual  preachings, 
and  other  sermons,  and  he  might  even  have  had  a  place 
in  the  "  Universal  Magazine  for  Preachers,"  only,  alas ! 
he  would  have  been  puffed  up  more  than  duty  demands. 

But  my  father  was  in  fact  neither  unfaithful  to  himself 
nor  to  the  muse  of  sweet  sounds.  Did  she  not  visit  him 
as  his  first  love  in  the  vestal  garments  of  the  holy  Virgin, 
and  bring  with  her,  every  week,  to  tlie  solitary,  silent 
parsonage  of  Joditz,  the  sweetest  church  music  ?  And,  on 
the  other  hand,  another  art  dwelt  with  that  of  music,  and 
sought  its  playroom  in  the  pulpit  of  Joditz ;  for,  in  my 
father  the  master  of  the  chapel  and  the  master  of  the  altar 


l8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.' 

were  united.  Eloquence,  the  prosaic  but  near  neighbor 
to  Poetry,  dwelt  in  my  father's  heart ;  and  the  same  sun- 
beam of  genius  that  in  the  morning  of  his  days  waked 
sweet  sounds  in  him,  as  in  the  statue  of  Memnon,  kindled 
later  in  life,  in  the  pulpit,  the  warmer  light  and  the 
thunder  of  a  preacher  of  the  Law. 

My  hearers  will  remark,  that  I  dwell  a  long  time  on 
my  relations,  and  praise  them  much  ;  but  I  will  immedi- 
ately begin  to  speak  of  myself,  and  then  shall  scarcely 
come  to  a  pause.  Indeed,  the  praise  itself  that  I  here 
give  my  father  would  not  appear  (if  he  yet  lived)  so  im- 
portant to  him  as  it  is  empty  to  me.  If  I  placed  myself 
before  him  in  eternity  among  the  blessed,  he  would  not 
be  elated,  that  in  the  year  1818  I  should  inform  the 
world,  from  my  Professor's  chair,  that  he  was  appointed 
by  the  Bayreuth  government  to  be  their  composer  of 
church-music.  And,  in  some  future  time  when  I  am 
among  the  blessed,  should  my  own  son  speak  of  me,  — 
ought  he,  because  I  no  longer  feel  praise,  to  speak  in 
a  less  animated  strain  of  the  applause  my  works  have 
gained  ? 

In  general,  my  revered  hearers,  would  I  ten  times 
rather  hold  historical  lectures  over  my  ancestors  than 
over  myself  How  altered  would  be  tlie  appearance  of 
that  distant  and  foreign  time,  if  our  relations  did  not  pass 
through  it,  stamp  it  with  our  presence,  and  make  it  fra- 
ternal to  us.  That  man  is  to  be  envied  who  can  retrace 
his  history  from  ancestor  to  ancestor,  and  cover  hoary 
time  with  the  green  mantle  of  youth.  For  if  we  are  only 
able  to  paint  the  time  in  which  our  ancestors  lived,  and 
themselves  also  in  the  splendor  and  freshness  of  youth, 
then  we  should  connect  our  posterity  with  ourselves,  and 
paint  them,  not  as  youths,  but  more  properly  as  old  men. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  19 

I  return  at  last  to  the  hero  and  subject  of  our  historical 
lectures,  and  select  especially  the  fact  that  he  was  born  in 
Wunsiedel,  a  city  of  the  Fichtelgebii'ge.  .  That  Fichtel- 
gebirge,  almost  the  highest  region  of  Germany,  gives  to 
its  inhabitants  so  much  health  that  they  can  dispense 
with  the  Alexander  baths,  and  furnishes  for  them  a  tall, 
large  wood-growth,  and  the  speaker  invites  his  hearers  to 
decide  whether  he  appears  as  a  confirmation  of,  or  an 
exception  to,  his  assertion.  It  is  particularly  vexatious  to 
a  man  whose  dearest  hope  is  to  acquire  a  name  ui  his 
native  city,  that  the  Wunsiedlers  swallow  the  r  at  the 
middle  and  end  of  every  word,  and  it  is  well  known  that 
the  name  of  Richter  begins  and  ends  with  that  letter. 

Besides,  the  forefathers  of  the  Wunsiedlers  stand  there 
with  the  laurel-crowns  of  Avarlike  bravery  that  I  must 
win  for  myself,  for  it  has  been  constantly  known  from 
history  how  they  withstood  the  Hussites  and  were  vic- 
torious ;  and  perhaps,  if  they  will  place  reviewers  there 
instead  of  Hussites,  I  shall  not  be  struck  from  the  list 
of  brave  men,  if  they  will  number  my  victories  over  my 
enemies,  from  the  Plussite  Nikolai  to  the  Hussite  Merkel.* 

In  former  times,  Wunsiedel  Avas  the  sixth  town  in  the 
so-called  Six  Districts,  at  least  for  patriotism  and  united 
zeal  in  defence  of  our  country  and  rights  ;  in  short,  it 
was  a  sixth  day  of  creation,  and  German  fidelity  and  love 
and  strength  long  continued  to  hold  out  therein. 

I  am  willing  to  have  been  born  in  thee,  little  city  of  the 
high  mountain,  whose  summits  look  down  upon  us  like 
the  heads  of  eagles.  Thy  mountain  throne  is  embel- 
lished by  the  steps  tliat  lead  to  it,  and  thy  fountains  of 
health  give  the  sick  man  strength  to  ascend  to  the  wide 

*  Nikolai   and  Merkel,  editors  and  printers  of  Reviews  that  had 
severely  criticised  the  works  of  Jean  Pa«l.  —  Tk. 


20  LIFE    OF   JEAN    PAUL. 

throne  above  him,  and  to  send  liis  glance  over  distant 
villages  and  mountain  plains.  I  am  glad  to  have  been 
born  in  thee,  little,  but  good,  city  of  my  affections.* 

It  is  often  observed  that  the  first-born  is  usually  of  the 
female  sex.  To  this  observation  the  hero  of  this  history 
is  no  exception,  notwithstanding  his  right  to  be  the  first- 
born ;  for  his  parents  were  married  in  October,  1761,  and 
he  w^as  born  in  March,  1763.  There  went  before  him 
a  being  that  on  this  earth  was  only  a  shadow,  and  began, 
perhaps,  its  life  in  the  light  of  another  world,  without 
having  discovered  the  light  of  this. 

Men  who  have  a  firm  hold  on  nothing  else  delight  in 
deep,  far-reaching  recollections  of  their  days  of  child- 
hood, and,  in  this  billowy  existence,  they  anchor  on  that 
far  more  than  on  the  thought  of  later  difficulties.  Per- 
haps for  tw^o  reasons,  —  that  in  this  retrospection  they 
press  nearer  to  the  gate  of  life  guarded  by  spritual  exist- 
ences, and,  secondly,  that  they  hope,  in  the  spiritual 
power  of  an  earlier  consciousness,  to  make  themselves 
independent  of  the  little,  contemjDtible  annoyances  that 
surround  humanity.  To  my  great  joy,  I  am  able  to  bring 
from  my  tAvelfth,  or,  at  furthest,  my  fourteenth  month, 
one  pale,  little  remembrance,  like  the  earliest  and  most 
frail  of  snow-drops,  from  the  fresh  soil  of  childhood.  I 
recollect,  namely,  that  a  poor  scholar  loved  me  much,  and 
that  I  returned  his  love,  and  that  he  carried  me  about  in 
his  arms,  and,  later,  took  me  more  agreeably  to  the  large, 
dark  apartment  of  the  alumni,  where  he  gave  me  milk 
to  drink.  This  form,  vanishing  in  distance,  and  his  love, 
hover  again  over  later  years,  but,  alas !  I  no  longer  re- 

*  Wunsiedel  is  a  pleasant  little  town  of  about  three  thousand  in- 
habitants. It  lies  between  Bayreuth  and  Egar,  the  two  extremities  of 
the  Fichtelgebirge,  and  higher  on  the  mountain  than  eithei\ 


AUTOBIOGllAPHY.  21 

member  Ms  name.  If  it  were  possible  tbat  he  lives  yet, 
far  in  his  sixtieth  year,  and  that,  as  a  learned  and  well- 
informed  man,  tliese  lectures  should  meet  his  eye,  and 
that  he  should  then  recollect  the  little  Professor  that  he 
bore  in  his  arms  and  often  kissed !  Ah  God,  if  this 
should  be  so,  and  he  should  write,  or  the  older  man 
should  come  to  visit  the  old  man !  This  little  morning- 
star  of  earliest  recollection  stands  yet  tolerably  clear  in 
its  low  horizon,  but  growing  paler  as  the  daylight  of  life 
rises  higher.  And  now  I  remember  only  this  clearly, 
that  in  my  earlier  life  I  remembered  everything  clearly. 
[A  characteristic  of  Jean  Paul  is  the  transparency  in 
which  his  earliest  years  lay  mirrored  in  his  mind  to  his 
latest  age.  The  beginning  of  his  Autobiography  is  not 
the  least  original  in  this,  which  divides  him  from  so  many 
others.  In  this  he  is  remarkably  the  opposite  of  Goethe, 
whose  active  and  agitated  life  had  erased  from  his  mem- 
ory the  traces  of  the  unfolding  of  his  childish  soul.] 

As  in  the  year  1765  my  father  was  called  to  be  pas- 
tor in  Joditz,  I  can  separate  my  Wunsiedler  relics  more 
easily  from  my  childish  recollections  of  Joditz.  Under 
the  parsonage-roof  of  Joditz  is  now  the  second  act  of  our 
little  historical  monodrama,  where  the  hero  of  the  piece 
has  entered  into  a  wholly  different  unfolding  of  character, 
for  every  division  of  my  lectures  is  in  a  different  dwell- 
ing-place. It  is  especially  in  the  liistory  of  these  lec- 
tures, or  the  lecture  on  this  history,  so  skilfully  and 
happily  arranged,  that,  of  the  three  unities  of  an  histor- 
ical piece,  the  first,  that  of  place,  is  no  more  violated  than 
that  of  time  ;  for,  as  the  hero  must  go  from  one  place  of 
residence  to  another,  so,  from  tlie  entrance  into  life  to  the 
entrance  into  his  ProfessorsWp;.  be -mu^it.  pais«'.from  one 
period  of  time  into  another.     But  he  hopes,  in  the  repre- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


Bentation  of  the  piece,  that  he  shall  scarcely  offend  the 
unity  of  time  by  growing  older,  although  the  great  diffi- 
culty will  be  to  preserve  throughout  the  unity  of  interest. 
Our  hero  has  ah-eady  risen  one  step,  and  we  have  the 
satisfaction  to  meet  him,  whom  we  left  in  the  first  divis- 
ion only  son  of  a  Tertius,  after  two  years  as  the  son 
of  a  pastor ;  for  in  1765  my  father  was  preferred  to 
Joditz  by  the  Lady  von  Plotho,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Bodenhausen,  the  wife  of  the  same  Plotho  who,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  of  Frederic  the 
Only,  was  a  delegate  to  the  Imperial  Diet  at  Regens- 
burg. 


CHAPTER   II. 

WinCH  INCLUDES  THE  TiME  FROM  AuGUST,  1775,  TO  JANUAET,  1776. 

—  JoDiTZ.  —  Village  Idyls. 

E  now  find  the  Professor  of  his  self-biography 
in  the  parsonage  in  Joclitz,  which,  in  a  female's 
cap  and  a  girl's  petticoat,  he  entered  with  his 
parents.  The  Saale,  springing  like  myself 
from  the  Fichtelgebirge,  ran  with  me  or  after  me  there, 
as  it  did  also  when  I  removed  afterward  to  Hof,  pursuing 
its  course  and  passing  that  city  also.  This  river  is  the 
most  beautiful,  at  least  the  longest,  in  Joditz,  and  courses 
round  it  as  if  it  wei*e  a  little  hill.  The  little  place  itself 
is  traversed  by  a  small  brook  that  is  crossed  by  a  board 
for  pedestrians.  An  ordinary  castle  and  the  pastor's 
house  are  the  only  distinguished  buildings.  The  envi- 
rons upon  a  level  are  not  more  than  twice  as  large  as 
the  village  itself.  And  yet  is  this  village  to  the  Profes- 
sor of  his  own  history  far  more  important  than  the  place 
of  his  birth ;  for  here  he  lived  the  most  important,  the 
boy  Olympiad  of  his  life. 

Never  could  I  give  my  voice  for  the  nineteen  cities,  that, 
according  to  Suidas,  quarrelled  for  the  honor  of  giving 
birth  to  Homer ;  as  little  for  the  different  Dutch  cities, 
that  (according  to  Bayle)  would  have  produced  Erasmus. 


24  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

What  can  the  first  day  after  nine  months  signify  more 
than  any  day  before  ?  And  can  the  place  of  the  grave 
confer  dishonor  or  advantage  on  its  inhabitant  more  than 
the  place  where  his  cradle  stood  ?  Altliough  so  many 
princes,  on  the  whole,  have  been  born  in  their  own  cities, 
yet  London,  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna,  do  not  glory  in  them, 
otherwise  cities  and  hamlets  that  have  produced  great 
villains  must  on  that  account  take  shame  to  themselves. 
At  furthest,  the  land  of  one's  birth  might  arrogate  the 
honors  of  birthplace,  if,  through  the  predominance  of 
good  bii'ths,  anything  could  be  decided  as  to  the  climate 
of  the  place  or  the  character  of  the  inhabitants  ;  but  a 
Pindar  in  Boeotia  does  not  make  there  a  swallow-sum- 
mer.* 

The  first  and  longest  place  of  education  is,  indeed,  the 
spiritual  birthplace ;  and  if  it  is  so  for  these  great,  world- 
renowned  men  who  rarely  need,  and  more  rarely  make 
use  of  education,  how  much  more  for  hamlet  and  village 
mediocre  celebrities  ;  men  like  my  hero,  who  has  gained 
so  much  through  nurture  and  education,  in  connection, 
with  reading,  which  is  only  a  more  important  instruction, 
that  he  has  become  what  he  is,  a  Ilildburghausen  Coun- 
sellor, a  Heidelberg  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  a  threefold 
member  of  different  societies,  and  the  present  unworthy 
possessor  of  the  Professorship)  of  this  autobiography. 

Let  no  poet  suffer  himself  to  be  born  or  educated  in  a 
metropolis,  but  if  possible,  in  a  hamlet,  at  the  highest  in 
a  village.  The  excesses  and  the  fascinations  of  a  great 
city  are  to  the  excitable,  weak  soul  of  a  child,  like  sip- 
ping at  a  midnight  table  a  draught  of  burnt  waters,  or 

*  The  meaning  seems  to  be  this:  one  Pindar  does  not  make  a  Par- 
nassus of  Boeotia,  because  born  in  the  latter  place,  any  more  than  one 
swallow  makes  a  summer. 


AUTOBIOGKArilY.  2$ 

bathing  in  fiery  wine.  Life  exhausts  itself  in  boyhood, 
and,  after  enjoying  the  greatest,  he  has  nothing  more  to 
wish  but  smaller  joys  and  village  pleasures.  But  one 
does  not  gain  so  much  when  he  comes  from  a  city  to  a 
village,  as,  on  the  contrary,  from  Joditz  to  Hof,  that  is, 
fi-om  a  village  to  a  city.  I  am  thinking  of  that  which  is 
most  important  to  the  poet,  —  Love  !  He  must,  in  the 
city,  draw  about  the  Avarm  zone  of  the  friends  and  ac- 
quaintance of  his  parents  the  greater  and  colder  number 
from  the  icy  circle  of  unloved  persons,  who  meet  and 
pass  him  with  the  same  indifference  that  a  ship's  com- 
pany on  the  great  ocean  meet  and  pass  another  ship, 
freighted  with  those  they  do  not  love.  But  in  a  village 
they  love  all  the  inhabitants,  and  not  a  nursling  is  there 
buried,  but  every  one  knows  its  name,  and  illness,  and  the 
tears  it  has  cost.  The  Joditzers  have  accustomed  them- 
selves to  dwell  in  each  other ;  and  this  heartfelt  sym- 
pathy for  every  one  who  bears  the  form  of  man,  and 
which  overflows  upon  strangers  and  beggars,  engenders 
a  concentrated  humanity,  and  rules  all  the  pulsations  of 
the  heart.  And  then  when  a  poet  wanders  from  such  a 
village,  he  bi-ings  to  every  one  he  meets  a  piece  of  his 
lieart,  and  he  must  journey  far  before  the  whole  heart  is 
expended  upon  the  streets  and  lanes. 

There  is  yet  a  greater  misfortune  than  that  of  being 
educated  in  a  great  city,  namely,  that  of  being  educated 
like  many  aristocratic  children,  who  journey  whole  years 
through  strange  cities  and  among  strange  men,  and  know 
no  home  but  the  coach-box. 

We  approach  nearer  again  to  our  hero,  the  pastor's  son, 

whose  life  in  Joditz  I  should  best  describe  if  I  called  it,  as 

I  look  back  upon  it,  a  whole  course  of  Idyllic  years  ;  but, 

as  wholesome  cloudy  weather  often  precedes  a  clear  day, 

2 


26  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

these  clouds  of  my  childhood  were  rich  in  instrnction, 
although  this  was  first  gathered  at  the  end  of  ten  years. 
My  life  consisted  in  learning  everything.  Like  a  prince, 
I  revelled  in  half  a  dozen  teachers,  but  I  had  scarcely  a 
good  one.  I  yet  remember  the  winter  evening  delight, 
when  I  received  from  the  city  a  respectable  ABC  book, 
with  a  pointer  to  show  the  letters.  Upon  the  cover,  with 
true  golden  letters  (and  not  without  good  reason  were 
they  of  gold),  the  contents  of  the  first  page  were  written, 
which  consisted  in  alternate  red  and  black  letters.  A 
gambler  wins  with  gold  and  rouffe  et  noir  less  delight 
than  I  by  that  book,  whose  pointer  I  did  not  once  apply. 
After  I  had  at  home  gone  privately  through  the  lower 
school  classes,  I  entered,  in  a  green  taffety  cap,  but  al- 
ready in  breeches  (for  the  schoolmistress  had  established 
my  weak  claims  to  enter),  the  high  school,  namely,  the 
one  whose  school-house  was  opposite  the  parsonage. 

As  usual,  all  in  the  school  were  dear  to  me,  especially 
the  lean,  consumptive,  but  animated  schoolmaster,  with 
whom  I  shared  his  patient  anxiety,  when  he  lay  in  am- 
bush behind  his  bird-cage,  placed  in  the  window  to  allure 
some  tmwary  passing  goldfinch,  or  when  he  spread  his 
net  without  in  the  snow,  and  caught  a  yellow-hammer 
from  tlie  host  of  birds.  In  the  midst  of  the  winter  sul- 
triness of  the  crowded  school-room,  I  remember  the  de- 
light with  which  I  drew  out  the  pegs  that  secured  the 
canvas  over  air-holes  bored  in  the  wooden  walls,  and 
drew  into  my  open  mouth  the  exciting  refreshment  of 
the  frosty  air  from  without.  Every  new  copy-book  from 
the  master  delighted  me  as  others  are  delighted  with  pic- 
tures. I  envied  every  one  who  said  his  lesson  well,  and 
I  enjoyed  reading  together  with  my  class,  as  singers  enjoy 
the  blessed  liarmony  of  tl)eir  music. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  27 

Was  it  twelve  o'clock,  and  the  dinner  not  ready ;  I  and 
my  deceased  brother  Adam  (although  a  bird's-nest  was 
dearer  to  him  than  the  wliole  seat  of  the  Muses)  desired 
nothing  better,  for  we  flew  with  our  hunger  back  into  the 
school-room,  not  to  lose  a  moment  when  the  ajiartment 
was  empty  and  quiet.  Much  might  be  thought  of  this 
sacrifice  to  the  love  of  learning,  but  I  know  well  that  a 
great  part  of  it  was  owing  to  the  common  desire  of  chil- 
dren to  depart  from  the  every-day,  established  order.  "We 
willingly  dined  an  hour  later,  just  as  on  this  account  the 
late  hour  of  fast-days  delighted  us.  Was  the  whole  house 
in  confusion,  either  through  whitewashing*  the  apart- 
ments, or  moving  into  another  house,  or  through  the 
arrival  of  many  guests,  we  httle  fools  could  think  of 
nothing  finer ! 

Alas  !  I  closed  forever  upon  myself  the  school-door  by 
an  untimely  complaint  to  my  father,  that  a  tall  peasant's 
son  (Zah  is  his  name  for  posterity)  had  cut  me  a  little 
on  the  knuckle  with  a  clasp-knife.  In  his  ambitious 
anger,  my  father  resolved  to  instruct  my  brother  and 
myself  alone,  and  I  must  henceforth  have  the  mortifica- 
tion to  see  every  winter  the  children  running  into  that 
haven  that  was  shut  to  me.  In  the  mean  time,  the  rival 
joy  remained  foi-  me  to  carry  frequently  to  the  school- 
master the  bulls  and  decrees  of  his  village  Pope,  which, 
instead  of  the  Romish  Agnus  Dei  and  consecrated  Christ- 
mas-box, consisted  of  a  butcher's  joint,  or  a  little  dish  with 
his  dinner. 

Four  hours  in  the  forenoon,  and  three  hours  in  the 
afternoon,  our  father  gave  to  our  instruction,  which  con- 
sisted of  merely  learning  by  heart  sentences,  catechisms, 

*  The  reader  will  recollect  the  Fichtelgebirge  houses  were  white- 
washed every  spring.  —  Tr. 


z8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Latin  words,  and  long  gi\ammatical  lessons.  We  were 
obliged  to  learn  the  long  rules  of  the  genders,  every  de- 
clension, together  with  the  exceptions,  and  the  accom- 
panying examples  in  Latin  verses,  without  understanding 
one  word  of  them.  Did  my  father  on  a  beautiful  sum- 
mer's day  go  into  the  country,  such  cursed  examples  as 
pants,  piscis,  were  left  to  be  learnt  by  heart  for  the  next 
morning.  As  for  my  brother  Adam,  to  whom  the  long 
summer's  day  scarcely  sufficed  for  his  activity  and  child- 
ishness, not  an  eighth  part  remained  in  his  head,  for  rarely 
had  lie  the  good  fortune  to  have  such  precious  declensions 
as  scamnum  or  cornu  among  the  number,  of  which  he  cer- 
tainly knew  how  to  recite  the  Latin  half  Besides,  you 
will  easily  believe  that  it  was  not  an  easy  thing,  in  a  clear, 
blue,  June  day,  when  the  omnipotent  father  was  not  at 
home,  to  make  one's  self  a  fast  prisoner  in  a  corner  of  the 
apai'tment,  and  delve  and  engrave  two  or  three  pages  of 
vocables  in  the  head.  In  a  blessed  long  summer's  day  it 
was  not  easy,  but  more  so  in  a  short,  dark  December's 
day,  and  we  must  not  wonder  if  my  brother  always  bore 
marks  of  such  days.  Tlie  Professor  of  his  own  liistory 
ventures  to  make  tliis  general  statement,  that  he  was  never 
in  his  school  life  flogged  in  general,  neither  in  part,  not 
to  say  he  was  never  completely  flogged  in  his  life. 

Let  not  this  mere  learning  by  heart  throw  a  false  light 
upon  my  unwearied  and  amiable  fatlier,  wlio  sacrificed 
the  whole  day  to  writing  out  and  committing  to  memory 
the  weekly  sermon  for  the  country  people,  merely  out 
of  extreme  pastoral  conscientiousness,  although  he  liad 
many  times  proved  the  power  of  liis  extemporaneous 
eloquence.  In  his  weekly  visit  to  the  school,  and  in 
doubling  his  public  exercises  with  the  children,  yes,  in 
everything,  he  went  beyond  liis  duty  by  his  voluntary 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  29 

and  gratuitous  services.  And  how  he  hung  with  a  wann, 
tender,  parental  heart  on  me,  and  easily,  with  every  lit- 
tle sign  of  talents  or  improvement,  bui'st  out  into  joyful 
tears !  This  fjither  committed  no  fault  in  his  whole  plan 
of  education  —  rarely  as  it  happens  —  except  faults  of 
the  head,  —  none  of  the  will. 

To  school-teachers,  especially,  is  this  method  to  be 
recommended,  since  so  much  toil  and  trouble  is  never 
saved  as  where  the  pupil  relies  on  the  book  as  a  vicarius 
or  adjunct  of  the  teacher,  and  his  curator  absentis,  and, 
like  a  powerful  clairvoyant,  feels  himself  magnetized. 
This  intellectual  self-repose  of  the  children  admits  of 
extension  to  such  a  degree  that  I  will  venture,  by  means 
of  the  post-office  alone,  to  preside  over  whole  schools  in 
North  America,  or  over  such  as  are  fifty  days'  journey 
removed  from  me  in  the  Old  World ;  for  I  will  merely 
write  for  my  school-boys  what  they  have  to  learn  by 
heart  every  day,  and  I  will  have  an  insignificant  man,  to 
whom  they  shall  repeat  what  they  have  learned.  And 
so  I  shall  enjoy  the  consciousness  of  their  fine  spiritual 
fast's  day  reminisceres. 

In  the  dialogues  in  Langen's  Grammar,  I  guessed  at 
the  German  from  longing  to  understand  their  contents ; 
but  my  father  would  not  allow  me  to  translate  while  in 
Joditz.  In  a  grammar  of  the  Greek  language,  written 
in  Latin,  I  studied,  hungering  and  thirsting,  the  alphabet 
of  that  language,  and  at  last  wrote  tolerable  Greek,  at 
least  as  far  as  belongs  to  the  handwriting.  How  easily 
and  Avillingly  could  I  have  learnt  more  !  The  spirit,  if 
not  the  substance,  of  a  language  entered  easily  into  me, 
as  the  third  lecture  of  our  winter  term  will  best  prove 
to  the  world. 

Once  in  a  winter's  afternoon,  —  I  might  have  been 


30  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

eight  or  nine  years  old,  —  my  father  brought  me  a  little 
Latin  dictionary  that  I  was  to  learn  by  heart,  l)ut  first  I 
was  to  read  him  a  page.  I  read  lingua,  notwitlistanding 
his  frequent  coiTection,  not  ling-wa,  but  always  lin-gua, 
and  repeated  the  same  fault,  in  s])ite  of  his  repeated 
corrections,  so  often,  that,  Avith  angry  impatience,  he  took 
the  book  from  me,  and  deprived  me  forever  of  leai'iiing 
it.  I  cannot,  even  now,  discover  the  source  of  this  obsti- 
nate stupidity ;  but  my  heart  tells  me  that  through  my 
whole  life  I  have  never  been  self-mlled,  even  in  play, 
and  never  to  my  father,  who  at  this  very  time  had  given 
me  a  school-boy's  pleasure  through  a  new  book.  This 
historical  feature  is  purjjosely  exliibited  in  our  lecture- 
room,  that  the  impartiality  of  our  historical  investigator 
and  Professor  may  appear  through  the  shadows  he  throws 
upon  his  hero,  whom  he  would  willingly,  if  truth  only 
were  stated,  represent  in  the  most  brilliant  light.  Be- 
sides, how  often  in  life,  either  with  or  without  under- 
standing, do  poor,  innocent  men  say  Kn-gua,  instead  of 
the  more  correct  ling-wa,  and  even  with  the  tongue  (lin- 
gua) that  at  the  same  time  signifies  language  (lingua)  ! 

Further,  history,  as  well  ancient  as  modern,  natural 
history,  the  most  interesting  descriptions  of  the  earth, 
arithmetic  and  astronomy,  as  well  as  orthograj)hy,  —  all 
these  sciences  I  became  sufficiently  acquainted  with,  but 
not  in  Joditz,  where  I  was,  indeed,  twelve  years  old 
witliout  knowing  a  word  of  them,  but  many  years  later 
at  ditrc-rent  intervals  and  by  fi'agments,  from  the  Uni- 
versal Library.  So  craving  was  my  thii'st  for  books  in 
this  intellectual  Sahara  Desert,  that  every  book  was  to 
me  a  fresh,  green  oasis,  —  particularly  tlie  Orbis  Pictus,* 

*  Goethe  mentions  the  "  Orbis  Pictus"  of  Amos  Comenius  as  one 
of  the  books  that  delighted  his  childhood.  —  Tk. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  31 

and  the  "  Dialogues  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Dead." 
Only  my  father's  library,  like  many  public  ones,  was 
rarely  open,  except  when  he  was  not  in  it,  nor  at  home. 
I,  at  least,  often  lay  upon  the  flat  roof  of  a  wooden  lat- 
tice-bedstead (like  a  great  cage  for  animals),*  and  crept 
to  the  books  to  obtain  one  for  myself.  We  may  well 
consider  that,  in  a  thinly  peopled  village  and  a  solitary 
parsonage,  a  man  speaking  in  a  book  must  be,  to  such 
a  thirsting  soul,  as  precious  as  the  richest  foreign  guest, 
a  INItEcenas,  a  travelHng  prince,  a  firet  American  to  a 
European.  A  novice,  ignorant  of  the  A  B  C  of  history, 
I  did  not  in  the  least  understand  the  quarto  volume  of 
the  "  Conversations  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Dead  " ;  but 
I  read  it,  as  well  as  the  newspapers,  as  if  it  were  a  geo- 
graphical work,  and  I  could  relate  much  from  both.  As 
I  related  to  my  father  out  of  the  book,  I  told  him  that 
one  evening  during  his  absence  I  had  read  the  history 
of  the  love  of  Roxelane  for  the  Turkish  Emperor.  I 
was  led  to  this  by  newspaper  extracts  received  from  an 
ancient  noble  lady.  He  had,  from  his  patroness  Plotho 
in  Zedwitz,  a  present  of  the  Bayi'euth  newspaper,  month- 
ly or  quarterly,  —  as  often  as  he  went  to  visit  her.  He 
brought  home  these  for  a  month  or  a  quarter  of  a  year, 
and  he  and  I  read  the  great  heap  with  profit,  as  it  came 
to  us  more  in  volumes  than  in  sheets.  A  pohtical  news- 
paper, read,  not  in  sheets,  but  in  volumes,  communicates 
real  instruction,  as  there  is  room  enough  in  a  whole  vol- 
ume of  leaves  to  correct  previous  impressions  and  get 
the  true  one,  and  like  the  air,  whose  true  color  is  not  to 
be  seen  in  parts  and  portions,  but  in  the  whole  circum- 
ference, as  only  in  its  whole  mass  it  obtains  its  heavenly 

*  In  the  houses  of  the  Fichtelgebirge,  as  the  bed  often  stood  in  the 
common  room,  it  was  enclosed  in  a  sort  of  wooden  wicker-work.  —  Tb. 


32  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

blue.  Every  morning  I  bore  my  news  atlas  to  the  castle 
of  the  old  Lady  von  Reitzenstein,  and,  at  the  morning 
coffee,  prophesied  one  event  and  another  from  the  news 
I  brought,  and  allowed  them  to  praise  me.  I  remember 
yet  the  noun  of  multitude,  at  that  time  often  repeated,  — 
confederacy  (it  is  highly  probable  it  was  the  Polan'd  con- 
federacy) ;  but  I  do  not  recollect  the  least  interest  taken 
in  it,  probably  because  I  understood  nothing  of  the  whole 
matter.  Thus  impartially  and  calmly  were  Polish  affaii-s 
considered  in  our  village,  as  well  by  myself  as  by  the 
old  Lady  Reitzenstein,  my  hearer. 

The  intellectual  fibres  of  our  hero,  thirsting  for  learn- 
ing, penetrated  and  wound  themselves  around  everything 
from  which  they  could  extract  their  aliment.  He  pre- 
pared clocks,  whose  dial-plates  were  good  counsellors, 
with  pendulums  and  wheel  and  weights,  which  stood 
well.  He  found  a  place  for  a  sun-dial,  and  wrote  upon  a 
wooden  plate  the  figures  with  ink,  and  drew  the  white 
line  with  the  gnomons,  and  placed  it  firmly  near  the 
tower  clock,  so  that  he  could  frequently  tell  the  exact 
time.  He  made  dials  as  many  cities  do,  rather  than 
clocks,  as  Lichtenberg  makes  the  titles  of  books  before 
the  books  themselves.  The  present  writer  shows  in  little 
a  box  in  which  he  established  a  miniature  etui  library  of 
his  own  Joditz  works,  made  from  the  ribbon  cuttings  of 
his  father's  octavo  sermons,  sewed  together  and  neatly 
trimmed.  The  contents  were  theological  and  Protestant, 
and  consisted  of  a  little  explanatory  note,  written  under  a 
verse  in  Luther's  Bible,  whence  he  copied  it.  The  verses 
themselves  were  left  out  of  the  little  books.  Thus  lay 
concealed  in  our  Frederic  Richter  already  a  little  Fred- 
eric von  Schlegel,  who  in  the  same  manner  in  his  selec- 
tions, "  Lessing's  Geist,"  gives  his  opinion  upon  passages 
in  certain  writers,  without  the  passages  themselves. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  33 

In  the  same  manner,  our  hero  threw  himself  upon 
pauiting.  Many  ruling  potentates  sat,  or  rather  lay  to 
him,  when,  with  a  fox'k,  he  pricked  through  their  features 
upon  a  thick  sooty  sheet  of  paper,  placed  under  the  en- 
graving, and  afterwards  pressed  it  upon  a  sheet  of  white 
paper.  Whether  he  might  not,  under  sunny  influences, 
have  attained  the  fame  of  Raphael  Mengs,  remains  to  be 
guessed,  for,  unlike  this  ai'tist,  they  had  to  beat  him  from, 
not  to  painting,  and,  -when  he  afterwards  received  a  box 
of  colors,  he  colored  the  whole  Orbus  Pictus  after  the  life. 
I  could  not,  at  this  time,  believe  all  that  was  in  the  box 
of  colors,  everything  is  so  painted  in  memoiy,  —  the  pale 
red  leather  ball,  the  four-cornered  red  tile,  the  rounded 
palette,  the  splendid  colored  shells,  and  the  green  and 
gold  beetle  yet  shimmering  in  that  box.  It  were  yet 
something  less  judicious,  from  his  art  of  making  herrings 
in  winter,  to  conclude  that  he  could  have  been  a  great 
financial  correspondent.  His  artifice  for  collecting  her- 
rings at  such  a  distance  from  the  coast  consisted  in  this. 
He  waded  into  the  brook  with  his  herring  bread,  and 
softly  raising  a  stone  under  which  was  a  gudgeon,  or 
smaller  fish,  he  immediately  placed  it  in  a  hollow  cabbage 
stalk,  which  he  called  a  herring  cask  and  salted  it  in,  and 
when  the  little  cask  was  full,  he  would  have  had  herrings 
to  eat,  if  they  had  not  all  been  spoilt.  Still  worse  would 
it  be  to  consider  the  little  financier  the  precursor  of  sur- 
rogate discoveries,  because  he  placed  the  brown,  dried 
halves  of  pears  upon  pieces  of  broken  glass  like  doves' 
feet,  and  served  them  up  as  hams  ready  for  eating,  or 
that  he  drove  snails  to  pasture.*  In  fact,  every  future 
investigator  of  the  history  of  the  present  historian  would 

*  Richter  means  here  to  ridicule  those  biographers  who  infer  an 
original  genius  for  their  heroes  from  the  nature  of  their  sports. 
2*  0 


34  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

appear  extremely  ridiculous  to  me,  if,  out  of  the  broken 
and  scattei-ed  fragments  of  any  other  childhood,  he  should 
collect  and  read  something  wonderful.  The  foolish  man 
would  appeal-  to  me  like  that  Paris  barber,  who,  Avith  tlie 
help  of  a  Jesuit,  placed  together  many  of  the  bones  of  an 
elephant,  and  sold  them  as  the  true  skeleton  of  the  Ger- 
man giant,  Teutobach.  The  beard  does  not  make  a  phi- 
losopher, for  a  sailor  and  a  criminal  may  each  come  from 
his  ship  and  prison  with  that  appendage,  because  they 
have  not  been  under  the  barber's  razor. 

The  boundless  activity  of  our  hero  expended  itself 
more  in  mtellectual  than  in  physical  experiments,  but  he 
followed  all  with  inexpressible  delight.  Thus  he  invent- 
ed, instead  of  a  new  language,  a  new  wi'iting  character. 
He  took  the  calendar  signs  from  the  Almanac,  or  geomet- 
rical out  of  an  old  book,  or  chemical,  or  original  from  his 
own  invention,  and  putting  all  together,  composed  a 
wholly  new  alphabet.  When  it  .was  ready,  the  first  use 
he  made  of  his  solitaire  alphabet,  was  to  clothe  therein  a 
couple  of  pages  of  copied"  matter ;  thus  he  was  his  own 
secret  wi'iter,  and  his  concealed  play  was  with  himself. 
Without  peeping  into  Biittner's  comparative  tables  of 
alphabetic  characters,  he  could  read  his  own  as  easily 
as  the  common,  as  he  placed  this  literally  under  his 
own  as  a  warrant,  and  had  only  to  glance  at  it  to  read 
the  secret. 

At  this  time  little  will  be  thought  of  said  historical  in- 
vestigator, if,  out  of  this  ciphering  and  deciphering,  which 
even  at  this  early  time  was  less  valuable  for  its  contents 
than  its  form,  he  should  have  seen  himself  the  incipient 
Counsellor  of  the  Embassy,  or  even  the  Ambassador  him- 
self ;  for  I  have  in  fact,  gained  the  character  of  legations- 
counsellor,  and  could  to-day  decipher  many  things. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  35 

To  music  was  my  soul,  like  my  father's,  everywhere 
open,  and  had  for  it  a  hundred  Argus  ears.  When  the 
schoolmaster  sent  the  church  worshippers  home  with  the 
final  cadences  of  the  organ,  my  whole  little  elevated  be- 
ing laughed  and  leaped  as  in  a  spring  morning  ;  or,  when 
the  morning  after  the  night  dance  of  the  Kii-chioeihe,*  (at 
which  my  father  the  next  Sunday  sent  loud,  thundering 
anathemas,)  when  the  foreign  musicians  with  their  haut- 
boys and  fiddles  collected  the  contributions  of  the  peasants 
before  the  wall  of  the  parsonage  court,  I  climbed  upon 
the  wall,  and  a  clear  jubilee  echoed  through  my  narrow 
breast,  and  the  delightful  airs  of  spring  played  within, 
with  the  spring-time  of  life,  and  I  forgot  every  syllable 
of  my  father's  sermon.  I  devoted  whole  hours  upon  an 
old  untuned  harpsichord,  whose  only  tuning-hammer  and 
tuning-master  were  the  winds  and  the  weather,  to  thun- 
dering out  my  fantasies,  which  certainly  were  as  free  and 
bold  as  any  in  Europe,  as  I  knew  neither  note  nor  touch  ; 
for  my  accomplished  pianist  father  would  teach  me 
neither  note  nor  finger. 

But  if  accidentally,  like  the  tune-setter  for  a  rope  or  fairy 
dance,  I  attained  with  my  fingers  on  the  piano  a  short  mel- 
ody or  harmony  of  three  or  six  strings,  I  was  like  a  man 
in  an  ecstasy,  and  repeated  this  discovery  of  my  fingers 
as  incessantly  as  any  new  German  poet  repeats  the  idea 
or  discovery  of  the  brain  by  which  he  gained  his  first  ap- 
plause. He  acts,  at  least,  in  a  more  fi'iendly  manner  than 
Ileliogabalus,  who  condemned  liis  cook  to  continue  eating 
a  bad  soup  until  he  had  discovered  a  better ;  on  the  con- 

*  The  annual  commemoration  of  the  consecration  of  the  church. 
A  church  consecration  is  one  of  the  principal  religious  ceremonies  in 
the  German  villages,  at  which,  as  Paul  relates,  foreign  musicians  and 
strollers  of  all  sorts  collected.  —  Tk. 


36  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

trarj,  the  Leipzig  book-fair  has  entertained  the  reading 
world  with  many  an  excellent  soup  that  they  have  tasted 
as  continually  as  the  imperial  cook  tasted  the  bad. 

In  the  future  literary  history  of  our  hero,  it  Avill  appear 
doubtful  whether  he  were  not  perhaps  born  more  for  the 
philosophic  than  the  poetic  art.  In  the  earliest  time,  the 
word  philosophy  was  but  a  second  name  for  the  Orient, 
and  to  me,  like  the  open  gate  of  heaven,  through  which 
I  saw  far  extended  gardens  of  joy.  Never  shall  I  forget, 
that  which  I  have  never  yet  related  to  human  being,  — 
the  inward  experience  of  the  birth  of  self-consciousness, 
of  which  I  well  remember  the  time  and  place.  I  stood 
one  afternoon,  a  very  young  child,  at  the  house  door,  and 
looked  at  the  logs  of  wood  piled  on  the  left,  when,  at 
once,  that  inward  consciousness  /  am  a  Me  came  like  a 
flash  of  lightning  from  heaven,  and  has  remained  ever 
since.  Then  was  my  existence  conscious  of  itself  and 
forever.  Deceptions  of  memory  are  here  scarcely  imag- 
inable, for  no  exterior  occurrence  could  mingle  with  a 
consciousness  so  concealed  in  the  holy  sanctuary  of  man, 
whose  novelty  alone  has  given  permanence  to  the  every- 
day circumstances  that  accompanied  it. 

It  appears  to  me  best,  in  order  to  represent  the  Joditz 
life  of  our  Jack  Paul  (for  so  we  must  continue  to  call 
him)  in  the  truest  manner,  to  lead  him  through  the  whole 
of  an  Idyllic  year,  and  to  divide  the  normal  year  of  four 
seasons  into  four  Idyllic  quarters.  Four  Idyls  will  ex- 
haust his  happiness. 

Let  no  one  wonder  at  an  Idyllic  reign,  or  Arcadian 
world  in  a  little  village  and  humble  jiarsonage.  A  tulip- 
tree,  whose  flower-branches  shall  overshadow  the  whole 
garden,  may  grow  in  the  smallest  bed,  and  the  life-giving 
air  of  joy  can  be  breathed  from  a  window  as  well  as  in 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  37 

the  wide  wood  under  the  broad  heaven.  Is  not  the  human 
spirit,  with  all  its  mfinite,  heavenly  expansion,  enfolded  in 
a  body  of  six  feet  high,  with  a  covering  of  Malpighian  * 
nerves,  and  capillary  tubes,  with  only  five  narrow  world- 
windows  of  senses  to  open  for  the  boundless  round-eyed, 
round-sunned  All !  And  yet  it  discerns  and  reproduces 
an  All! 

I  scarcely  know  witli  which  of  the  Idylline  quarters  to 
begin,  for  each  is  a  little  heavenly  introduction  to  tlie 
next ;  however,  the  climax  of  joys  will  be  most  ajiparent, 
if  we  start  with  winter,  and  January.  In  the  cold,  our 
father,  like  an  Alpine  herdsman,  came  down  from  the 
upper  altitude  of  his  study ;  and  to  the  great  joy  of  tlie 
children,  dwelt  in  the  plain  of  the  common  every-day- 
room  of  the  family.  In  the  morning  he  sat  by  the  win- 
dow and  learned  his  Sunday's  sermon  by  heart,  and  the 
three  sons,  Fritz  (who  I  myself  am),  Adam,  and  Gotlieb, 
for  Henry  came  afterwards,  carried  by  turns  the  full  cup 
of  coffee  to  him,  and  still  more  gladly  the  empty  one  back, 
as  the  bearer  could  pick  out  the  umnelted  remains  of  the 
sugar-candy,  which  he  took  against  a  cough,  from  the  bot- 
tom. Out  of  doors,  the  sky  covered  all  things  with  si- 
lence, —  til*  brook  with  ice,  the  village  with  snow ;  but 
in  our  room  there  was  truly  life  ;  under  the  stove,  a  pig- 
eon-house, on  the  windows  green  and  goldfinch  cages  ;  on 
the  floor  the  invincible  bull-dog,  our  Bonne,  the  night- 
guardian  of  the  courtyard,  and  a  poodle,  the  pretty 
Scharmantelle,  a  present  from  the  Lady  von  Plotho, 
and  close  by,  the  kitchen,  with  the  two  maids;  further 
off,  towards  the  other  end  of  the  house,  .our  stable  with  all 
sorts  of  neat,  swinish,  and  feathered  animals,  and  all  their 

*  Malpighi  was  a  celebrated  physician  who  decomposed  the  skin. 
—  Tk. 


38  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

possible  noises  ;  *  the  tkresliers  also  with  their  flails  might 
be  heard  in  the  court  of  the  parsonage.  lu  tins  way, 
suiTounded  by  society,  the  male  portion  of  the  house- 
hold spent  their  forenoons  in  tasks  of  memory,  while  the 
female  portion  were  as  busily  employed  in  cooking. 

No  occupation  whatever  excludes  holidays.  I  also 
had  my  ailing  festivals,  equivalent  to  a  holiday  upon 
the  water,  when  I  could  travel  out  in  the  snow  of  the 
courtyard,  and  to  the  threshing  in  the  barn.  Nay,  was 
there  a  difficult  embassy  to  be  transacted  in  the  village,  — 
for  example,  a  message  to  the  schoolmaster  or  the  tailor,  — 
I  was  sure  to  be  despatched  in  the  middle  of  my  lesson ; 
thus  I  could  breathe  the  free,  cold  air,  and  measure  my- 
self in  the  new  snow.  At  noon  also,  before  our  own  din- 
ner, we  chikken  could  have  the  hungry  satisfaction  to  see 
the  threshers  in  the  kitchen  fall  to  and  devour  theirs. 

The  afternoon  was  still  more  significant,  and  richer 
in  joys.  Winter  shortened  and  sweetened  our  lessons. 
In  the  long  twilight,  the  father  walked  to  and  fro,  and 
the  childi-en  trotted  after  him,  creeping  under  his  night- 
gown, and  holding  on,  if  they  could  reach  his  hands.  At 
the  sound  of  the  vesper  bell,  we  placed  ourselves  in  a 
circle,  and  devoutly  chanted  the  hymn,  Die  ^nstre  Nacht 
hricht  stark  herein,  —  "The  gloomy  night  is  gathering  in." 
In  villages  only,  for  in  towns  there  is  more  night  than 
day  work,  have  the  evening  chimes  a  meaning  and  beau- 
ty, and  are  indeed  the  swan-song  of  the  day ;  the  evenmg 
bell  is,  as  it  were,  the  muffle  of  the  overloud  heart,  and 
like  a  Ranz  -des  Vaches  of  the  plain,  calls  men  from  toil 
and  tumult  into  the  land  of  silence  and  of  dreams.  After 
watching  for  the  moonlight  of  the  candle-lighting  to  ap- 

*  The  reader  will  recollect  that  in  the  Fichtelgebirge  houses  all  the 
domestic  animals  were  under  the  same  roof  with  the  family. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  39 

pear  under  the  kitelien  door,  we  saw  the  wide  room  at 
once  iUuminated  and  secured  ;  namely,  the  window  siiut- 
ters  were  closed  and  bolted  ;  behind  these  window  breast- 
works and  bastions  the  children  felt  secure,  and  closely 
nested  against  Knecht  Ruprecht,  who  could  not  entex",  but 
only  gi-umbled  and  gi-owled  from  without.* 

About  this  time  also,  we  children  might  undress  and 
skip  up  and  down  in  long  traiUng  night-gowns.  Idyllic 
joys  of  various  kinds  alternated.  Our  father  either  had 
his  quarto  Bible,  interleaved  with  blank  folio  sheets  before 
him,  and  was  marking  at  each  verse  the  book  that  had 
commented  upon  it ;  or  he  had  his  ruled  music  paper, 
and,  undisturbed  by  the  noise  of  the  childi-en,  was  com- 
posing whole  concerts  of  church  music.  In  both  cases, 
and  especially  in  the  last,  I  observed  the  writing,  and  was 
rejoiced  when,  through  the  pauses  of  various  instruments, 
whole  quarters  of  pages  were  at  once  filled  up.  He  con- 
structed his  internal  melody  without  help  from  external 
tones  (as  Reichardt  advises),  and  in  spite  of  the  chil- 
dren's noise. 

The  children  sat  playing  on  that  long  writing  and  eat- 
ing table,  and  even  under  it.  Among  the  joys  that  be- 
longed to  tliis  sweet  time  of  childhood  was  this  ;  that 
during  the  severe  winter's  frosty  weather,  the  long 
table,  on  account  of  the  warmth,  was  shoved  to  the 
stove-bench,t  and  our  gain  consisted  in  tliis,  that  we 
could  sit  or  run  upon  it 

*  Knecht  Ruprechl  is  the  hobgoblin  or  Raw-head-and-bloody-bones 
of  German  children.  —  Tr. 

t  To  understand  this  passage,  the  reader  must  recollect  the  one 
apartment  of  the  houses  of  the  Fichtelgebirge,  the  large  porcelain 
stove,  and  the  table  used  for  all  domestic  purposes,  which,  when 
shoved  to  the  bench  that  surrounded  the  stove,  must  have  formed 
the  coacli-like  domesticity  that  Richter  loved.  —  Tk. 


40  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Then  how  did  tlie  winter  evening  rise  in  value  when, 
once  a  week,  the  old  errand-woman  coated  in  snow,  with 
her  fruit-  and  flesh-  and  general  ware-basket,  entered  the 
kitchen  from  the  city  of  Hof,  and  we  all  had  the  distant 
town  in  miniature  before  our  eyes,  nay,  before  our  noses, 
for  there  were  pastry-cakes  also. 

In  our  first  childish  years,  the  father  permitted,  after 
the  early  supper  on  winter  evenings,  yet  another  joyful 
repast,  when  the  housemaid  brought  her  distaff  into  the 
common  apartment,  illuminated  with  all  the  light  the  pine- 
torch  could  afford,  kindled,  as  in  Westphalia,  from  a  pine- 
branch. 

At  this  supper-table,  as  I  now  remember  it,  beside  con- 
fectionery and  ices,  and  the  popular  tale  of  Aschenbrodel,* 
was  also  that  pine-apple  artificially  raised  by  the  maid 
herself,  —  namely,  the  history  of  the  shephei'd  and  his 
wolf-fight  with  wolves,  with  whom  at  one  time  his  own 
danger,  and  at  another  that  of  his  provision,  was  the  gi-eat- 
est.  Yet  I  felt  the  increasing  happiness  of  the  shepherd 
as  my  own,  and  remark  only  from  my  own  experience, 
that  children  in  fictitious  stories  are  far  more  interested 
in  the  gradual  progression  of  happiness  than  in  that  of 
misfortune,  and  that  they  wish  the  path  of  heaven  should 
lead  up  eternally,  but  the  path  of  hell  should  go  down 
only  as  far  as  is  necessary  to  glorify  and  exalt  the  throne 
of  heaven.  These  childish  wishes  would  also  later  be 
the  wishes  of  men,  and  they  would  for  their  fulfilment 
make  stronger  demands  upon  the  poet,  were  only  a  new 
heaven  as  easy  to  create  as  a  new  hell.  Every  tyrant 
can  invent  unheard-of  pains,  but  to  discover  unknown 
joys,  they  must  themselves  know  the   value   of  them. 

*  "  Aschenbrodel  "  is  probably  the  name  of  a  popular  German  tale, 
with  which  the  translator  is  unacquainted. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  41 

The  seat  of  torture  is  the  skin ;  upon  which  a  hundred 
hells,  from  inch  to  inch,  may  pitch  their  tents,  but  the 
heaven  of  the  five  senses  hovers,  airy  and  uniform, 
above  us. 

At  the  end  of  the  winter  evening,  a  horrible  wasp-sting 
or  vampire's  tongue  threatened  our  hero.  The  children 
at  nine  o'clock  were  sent  tq  bed  in  the  guest's  chamber, 
in  the  second  story  ;  my  brother  in  a  bed  in  the  common 
apartment,  and  I  in  a  room  that  I  shared  with  my  father. 
There,  until  he  had  finished  his  two  hours'  long  night- 
reading,  I  lay  with  my  head  under  the  bed-clothes,  in  the 
cold  agony  of  fear  of  ghosts,  and  saw  in  the  darkness  the 
lightning  from  the  cloudy  heaven  of  spirits ;  and  it  seemed 
to  me  as  if  man  himself  was  spun  round  by  spirit-worms. 
I  suifered  thus  helplessly  two  long  hours,  until,  at  last, 
my  father  came  up,  and,  like  a  morning  sun,  chased  away 
the  spectres,  like  dreams,  and  the  next  morning  the  ghostly 
torment  was  as  completely  forgotten,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
dream ;  but  only  to  appear  again  the  next  evening.  Yet 
have  I  never  mentioned  this  to  any  one,  until  to-day  I 
tell  it  to  the  world. 

This  fear  of  ghosts  was  not  so  much  created  as  nour- 
ished by  my  father  himself.  He  spared  us  not  one  of  all 
the  spiritual  appearances  of  which  he  had  heard,  and  even 
told  us  som&  which  he  believed  himself  to  have  experi- 
enced ;  but,  like  the  old  theologians,  he  united  with  a 
firm  belief  in  them,  a  firm  courage  against  them,  and 
Christ  upon  the  cross  was  to  him  a  shield  against  all 
spirits.  Many  children  who  are  physically  timid  appear 
courageous  against  spirits,  but  this  is  merely  from  a  want 
of  imagination.  On  the  contrary,  a  child  like  myself 
trembles  before  the  invisible  world,  which  his  fancy  forms 
and  peoples,  but  arms  himself  easily  against  the  visible, 


42  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

as  this  never  reaches  the  depth  and  greatness 'of  the  in- 
visible. Thus  an  eminent  physical  danger,  such  as  a  furi- 
ous horse,  a  clap  of  thunder,  war,  or  an  alarm  of  fire, 
made  me  tranquil  and  self-possessed,  as  I  was  susceptible 
of  fear  only  through  the  itoagination,  and  not  by  the 
senses.  A  ghost,  could  I  have  survived  the  first  shudder, 
would  have  restored  me  again  to  common  life,  if  it  did 
not,  through  gesture  or  sound,  precipitate  me  into  the 
endless  kingdom  of  Fantasie.  But  how  are  we  now  to 
be  preserved  by  education  from  the  tragical  over  mastery 
of  the  spirit-invoking  imagination  ?  Not  through  contra- 
diction, and  the  Wagnerish  solution  of  the  monsters  in 
the  light  of  day,  for  the  possibility  of  the  unexplained 
exceptions,  retains  firm  hold  of  our  deepest  convictions ; 
but  sometimes,  partly  through  prosaic  solutions,  and  famil- 
iarity with  places  and  times,  where  formerly  the  imagi- 
nation kindled  its  enchanted  vapor,  and  pai'tly  through 
means  by  which  the  imagination  is  armed  against  the 
imagination,  and  spirits  are  opposed  to  spirits  ;  to  the 
Devil  —  God ! 

It  happened,  througli  peculiar  circumstances,  that  I  was 
sometimes  afraid  of  ghosts  in  tlie  daytime.  Thus  at  a 
funeral,  before  the  procession,  headed  by  the  pastor  and 
schoolmaster,  with  the  children,  and  the  cross,  moved 
from  the  parsonage  by  the  church,  over  to  the  church- 
yai'd,  passing  through  the  village,  where  it  was  joined  by 
the  singers,  I  was  obliged  to  carry  my  father's  great  Bible 
through  the  clmrch  into  the  sacristy.  Carelessly  and  full 
of  courage,  I  went  at  a  gallop  through  the  shadowy, 
silent,  listening  church  into  the  narrow  sacristy,  —  but 
who  can  represent  to  himself  the  pale,  trembling  rush  of 
fear,  before  the  after-rushing  world  of  spirits  at  one's 
heels,  with  which  I  shot  from  the  church  door,  —  and  if  it 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  43 

could  be  described,  who  would  not  laUgh  ?  Nevertheless 
I  always  undertook,  without  opposition,  the  office  of  car- 
rj'ing  the  Bible  to  the  sacristy,  and  concealed  my  terror 
in  my  own  breast. 

We  come  now  to  the  gi-eat  Idyl  time,  the  Joditz  spring 
and  summer.  Both  seasons  fall  from  various  causes, 
especially  in  the  country,  into  one  Idyl.  The  spring 
dwells  only  essentially  in  the  lieart ;  out  upon  the  earth, 
it  is  mei'ely  summer,  that  is  everywhere  established  upon 
the  present,  upon  fruition.*  It  is  merely  necessary  in 
villages  to  draw  away  the  curtain  of  snow  from  the  stage 
or  earth  for  its  joys  to  begin.  The  city  has  its  pleasures 
only  in  the  winter.  Ploughing  and  sowing  are  a  country- 
man's pleasure-harvest,  and  for  a  Pastor  who  does  his 
own  farming,  they  open  new  scenes  to  his  secluded  sons. 
Then  were  we  poor  children,  who  had  been  imprisoned  by 
the  winter  in  the  narrow  parsonage  court,  by  that  heaven- 
commissioned  angel,  the  spring,  freed  and  emancipated 
into  the  fields  and  meadows  and  gardens.  Then  we 
ploughed,  sowed,  planted  ;  mowed  and  made  hay,  cut 
the  corn  and  harvested  it.  Everywhere,  the  father 
stood  by  and  helped,  and  the  children  assisted  him,  I 
especially,  as  the  oldest.  Only  imagine,  dear  hearer, 
what  it  was  to  be  freed,  not  merely  from  city  walls, 
wliich  sometimes  enclose  whole  fields,  but  from  the 
walls  of  a  court,  and  to  flee  away  over  a  whole  village, 
into  the  unenclosed  circle,  and  to  look  down  from  above, 
into  the  village,  and  see  what  they  could  not  see  from 
beneath. 

My  father  did  not  stand  by  the  field  laborers  as  an 

*  Jean  Paul  means  here  to  indicate  the  rapid  changes  of  season  in  a 
northern  climate.  He  means  to  say,  that  while  the  heart  is  anticipating 
spring,  it  is  already  summer  out  upon  the  earth.  —  Tk. 


44  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

overseer  or  taskmaster  (although  they  wore  feudal  ten- 
ants), but  as  a  friendly  shepherd  of  souls  that  would  take 
part  at  the  same  time  with  nature,  and  with  his  spiritual 
children.  Wliile  I  see  ecclesiastics  and  proprietoi-s  and 
avaricious  men  so  richly  furnished  from  head  to  foot  with 
suckers,  so  that  they  draw  everytliing  to  themselves,  I 
find  in  my  father  rather  the  diffusing  system,  and  that  he 
thought  ten  times  a  day  of  giving,  although  he  had  little 
for  the  purpose,  but  scai'cely  once  of  taking,  by  which  he 
might  have  had  something  to  give.  And  then,  later  in 
life,  I  have  seen  so  many  human  insects  furnished  only 
with  pincers  good  to  wound,  while  he  held  in  his  hand 
nothing  but  those  birth-forceps  which  merely  bring  the 
new  life  to  its  birth,  and  preserve  it.  Heavens  !  what  a 
difference,  and  why  is  it  not  more  considered  ?  Are  they 
just  merchants,  pastors  and  noblemen,  who,  knowing  also 
what  belongs  to  them,  open  their  hands  only  as  bird- 
climbers,  to  clutch  at  what  is  above  them,  or  open  merely 
to  shut  them  again  ? 

Now,  in  fact,  life  began  under  a  pure  heaven.  Tlie 
morning  sparkled  with  the  undried  dew,  when  I  carried 
his  coffee  to  my  father,  to  the  pastor's  garden,  lying  out- 
side the  village,  where,  in  a  small  pleasure-house  open  on 
every  side,  he  committed  his  sermon  to  memory.  In  the 
evening,  our  mother  bi'ought  us,  for  our  second  meal,  the 
salad  prepared  by  hei'self,  and  currants  and  raspberries 
from  the  garden.  It  belongs  to  the  unacknowledged 
country  pleasures,  that  of  being  able  to  sup  in  tlie  even- 
ings without  kindling  a  liglit.  After  we  had  enjoyed  this, 
the  father  seated  himself  with  his  pipe  in  the  open  air,  — 
that  is,  in  the  walled  court  of  the  parsonage,  and  I  and 
my  brother  sprang  about  in  our  nightgowns  in  the  fresh 
evening  air,  as  freely  as  the  crossing  swallows  above  us. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  45 

"We  flew  nimbly,  here  and  there,  till,  like  them,  we  bore 
us  orderly  to  our  nests. 

The  most  beautiful  of  all  summer-birds,  meanwhile, 
was  a  tender,  blue  butterfly,  which,  in  this  beautiful  sea- 
son fluttered  about  our  hei-o,  and  was  his  first-love.  This 
was  a  blue-eyed  peasant-girl  of  his  own  age,  with  a  slen- 
der form  and  an  oval  face  somewhat  marked  with  the 
small-pox,  but  with  the  thousand  traits  that,  like  the 
magic  circles  of  the  enchanter's  wand,  take  the  heart  a 
prisoner.  Auguste  or  Augustina  dwelt  with  her  brother 
Romer,  a  delicate  youth,  who  was  known  as  a  good  ac- 
countant, and  as  a  good  singer  in  the  choir.  It  did  not, 
indeed,  come  to  a  declaration  of  love  on  the  side  of  Paul, 
or  it  would  appear  in  this  division  of  the  readings  already 
printed,  but  he  played  his  little  romance  in  a  lively  man- 
ner, from  a  distance,  as  he  sat  in  the  pastor's  pew  in  the 
church,  and  she  in  the  seat  appropriated  to  women,  ap- 
parently near  enough  to  look  at  each  other  without  being 
satisfied.  And  yet  this  was  only  the  beginning ;  for 
when,  at  evening,  she  drove  her  cow  home  from  the 
meadow  pasture,  he  instantly  knew  the  well-remembered 
sound  of  the  cow-bell,  and  flew  to  the  court  wall  to  see 
her  pass,  and  give  her  a  nod  as  she  went  by ;  then  ran 
again  down  to  the  gateway  to  the  speaking-grate,  she, 
the  nun  without,  and  he  the  monk  within,  to  thrust  his 
liand  through  the  bars  (more  he  durst  not  do  on  account 
of  the  children  without),  in  which  there  was  some  little 
dainty,  sugared  almonds,  or  something  still  more  costly, 
that  he  had  brought  for  her  from  the  city.  Alas  !  he  did 
not  arrive  in  many  summers  three  times  to  such  happi- 
ness as  this.  But  he  was  obliged  to  devour  all  the  pleas- 
ures, and  almost  all  the  sorrows  within  his  own  heart. 
His  almonds,  indeed,  did  not  all  fall  upon  stony  ground, 


46  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

for  there  grew  out  of  them  a  whole  hanging  garden  in 
his  imagination,  blooming,  and  full  of  fragi'ance,  and  he 
walked  in  it  whole  Aveeks  long.  For  pure  love  will  only 
bestow,  and  through  making  the  beloved  happy,  is  happy ! 
And,  could  it  give  an  eternity  of  ever-increasing  happi- 
ness, what  were  more  blessed  than  love  ? 

The  sound  of  this  cow-bell  remained  for  him  a  long 
time  the  Ranz  des  Vaches  from  the  high,  distant  Alps  of 
childhood,  and  yet  will  liis  old  heart's  blood  roll  in  billows 
through  his  veins,  when  this  sound  again  hovers  in  the 
air.  There  are  tones  from  the  wind-harp  that,  playing 
on  the  spot  are  beautiful,  but  farther  off  more  beautiful 
still,  and  in  the  distance,  I  might,  at  their  softened  sound, 
weep  for  pleasure.  We  associate  love  with  eveji  the 
slightest  sound ;  be  it  only  a  cow-bell,  its  Oii^hic  enchant- 
ment is  doubled,  and  the  distant,  invisible  waves  of  har- 
mony lead  the  heart  into  the  eternal,  and  we  know  not 
whether  it  is  near  or  distant,  and  man  weeps  joyfully 
at  the  same  time  over  what  he  possesses  and  what  he 
desires. 

In  this  focus  of  love,  Paul  remained  opposite  to  Augus- 
tina,  and  lived  Avhole  years,  witliout  so  mucli  as  touching 
her  hand.  Of  a  kiss  indeed,  he  could  never  dream.  If 
sometimes  a  homely  servant-maid  of  his  parents,  whom  he 
did  not  love,  rashly  and  bashfully  laid  one  upon  his  lips, 
soul  and  body  rushed  unconsciously  and  innocently  to- 
gether in  that  kiss,  —  but  the  lips  of  a  beloved,  which,  at 
a  distance,  shone  w^armly  down  like  the  sun  upon  the  most 
inward  sj^iritual  love,  would  have  immersed  him  in  the 
warmest  heaven,  and  left  him  entranced,  and  evaporating 
in  a  glowing  ether,  —  and  yet  it  must  be  confessed,  that 
once  or  twice  in  Joditz  he  was  thus  entranced.  In  his 
thirteenth  year,  when  his  father  received  a  much  richer 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  47 

parsonage,  he,  ov  rather  his  eyes,  were  driven  two  miles 
distant  from  his  beloved.  His  father,  out  of  love  for  his 
old  residence,  had  taken  with  him  to  his  richer  parish 
a  young  tailor,  whom  he  entertained  for  many  weeks. 
When  he  returned,  our  hero  furnished  him  with  many 
pretty  Potentates,  that  he  had  sketched  with  wax  and 
soot,  and  with  his  color-box  had  colored  after  life,  to  carry 
to  Augustina,  with  the  commission  that  the  knights  and 
princes  were  made  by  himself,  and  he  presented  them  to 
her  as  an  eternal  souvenir. 

Another  love  passage  from  the  same  period,  and  that 
endured  no  longer  than  dinner-time,  belongs  entirely  to 
him,  for  the  young  lady  knew  notlting  of  it.  As  he  sat 
wholly  sunk  in  deep  silence  at  a  respectable  table  in 
Koditz,  surrounded  with  grown-up  young  people,  the 
above-mentioned  young  lady  sat  opposite,  and,  in  ap- 
pearance, was  one  of  them.  There  swelled  in  his  heart, 
as  he  looked  at  her,  a  love  inexpressible  in  sweetness, 
seemingly  inexhaustible,  a  gushing  of  the  heart,  a  heav- 
enly annihilation  and  dissolving  of  the  whole  being  into 
her  eyes.  She  said  not  a  word  to  the  enchanted  boy,  nor 
he  to  her.  Had  she  only  bowed,  or  wafted  a  kiss  to  the 
poor  parsonage  boy,  he  had  passed  from  heaven  to  heaven. 
Nevertheless,  there  remains  the  memory  of  the  feeling  of 
the  moment,  more  than  of  her  face,  of  which  he  retains 
nothing  but  the  scars.  As  this  beauty  is  already  the 
second  that  has  been  thus  marked  (in  later  readings  more 
will  enter),  the  Professor  considers  it  his  duty  to  declare 
to  all  vaccinated  fair  readers,  that  he  knows  how  to  value 
their  beauty  as  well  and  as  highly  as  he  did  at  that  time 
a  different  fashion  of  face.  And  he  pledges  himself,  in 
connection  with  this  discussion  of  beauty,  that  every 
female  face  whose  so-called  ugliness  has  no  moral  cause, 


48  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

he  can  without  cosmetic  artifice,  Avithout  paint  or  poma- 
tum-box, witliout  snow  or  soap-water,  and  without  night- 
masks,*  make  in  the  highest  degree  charming  and  en- 
chanting ;  —  if  she  will  only  sing  to  him  some  evening  a 
song  composed  of  heart-words,  no  one  shall  be  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  singer,  —  but  naturally  only  in  his  eyes,  — 
for  who  can  speak  for  another  ? 

This  was  confirmed  by  the  very  person  in  question ;  for 
when,  twenty  years  afterwards,  he  found  himself  opposite 
to  her  in  Hof,  the  scai'S  only,  the  pit-marks  remained. 
She  was  faded  and  bent,  and  I  name  her  not ! 

Pure  love  has  as  illimitable  power  to  create  and  elevate 
as  the  common  has  to  depress  and  destroy.  It  would 
obtain  a  more  powerful  hold  of  us  in  representation,  had 
it  not  been  so  often  described ;  but  for  tliis  reason  only 
are  so  many  thousand  books  endured,  that  only  paint  it. 
Take  from  a  man  who,  in  the  enclianting  time  of  love, 
looks  upon  the  landscape,  the  stars,  flowers,  and  moun- 
tains, sounds  and  songs,  pictures  and  poems,  yes,  even  the 
living  and  the  dead  with  poetic  enjoyment ;  —  take  from 
him  love,  and  he  has  lost  the  tenth  Muse,  or  rather  the 
mother  of  all  the  Muses  ;  and  every  one  feels  in  later 
years,  when  he  prohibits  himself  this  sacred  inspiration, 
that  of  all  the  Muses,  the  tenth  has  failed  him. 

"We  come  now  to  the  Sunday  of  our  Paul,  in  which  his 
Idyl  gains  in  splendor.  Sunday  appears  to  have  been 
created  for  pastors  and  pastors'  children.  Our  Paul  en- 
joyed especially  a  great  many  trinity  Sundays,  although, 
through  all  the  twenty-seven,  not  one  more  summer  Sun- 
day came  into  the  world  and  the  cluirch  than  in  other 
years. 

*  Ladies  sometimes  slept  in  medicated  masks  in  order  to  procure  a 
delicate  complexion,  or  to  defend  a  delicate  one  from  the  severe  air  of 
a  northern  climate. 


AUTOBIOGRArilY.  49 

In  cities,  there  are  birthdays  of  princes  and  great  men, 
and  fair-time,  the  true  Trinitatis.  Paul  began,  on  splen- 
did, shining  Sunday  mornings,  his  enjoyment  in  this  way: 
Before  church,  he  went  through  the  village  with  a  bunch 
of  keys,  jingling  them  by  the  way,  to  show  himself,  and 
opened  the  pastor's  garden  with  one  of  them,  to  bring 
roses  from  thence  to  adorn  the  reading-desk.  In  the 
church  itself  it  was  already  cheerful,  as  the  long  win- 
dows admitted  the  sun,  and  the  cold  ground  and  the 
women's  seats  were  already  penetrated  with  broad  beams 
of  light  that  circled  about  the  seat  of  the  enchanting 
Augustina.  The  joy  also  is  not  to  be  despised,  whicii 
he,  together  with  his  brothers  in  office,  felt,  when,  after 
church,  and  before  dinner,  they  carried  to  the  feudal  peas- 
ants of  the  week  the  lawful  half-pound  of  bread  and  the 
money  collected,  —  especially  as  the  father  cut  the  bread 
very  large,  which  was  a  joy  to  the  peasants  ;  and  chil- 
dren, Paul  particularly,  love  to  cany  joy  into  a  house. 

He  had  also  to  carry  to  the  peasant  Romer  his  portion 
of  the  bread,  and  found  himself  thus  nearer  to  the  saint 
of  his  church  and  heart,  —  but  always  in  vain.  For  in 
his  perspective  painting  of  love  ten  steps  more  or  less 
were  something ;  and  only  imagine  him,  by  some  singular 
good  Fortune,  to  have  stood  but  half  a  step  from  her !  — 
But  I  will  not  hint  —  (for  in  that  case  he  would  have 
spoken  out  audibly  for  himself)  —  of  such  unrealized 
blessedness. 

I  assert  that  no  magistrate,  prince,  teacher,  or  other 
official,  can  form  to  himself  an  idea  how  a  Sunday's  ves- 
per hour  is  enjoyed  by  the  children  of  a  pastor,  wlien  both 
church  services  are  over,  especially  of  one  who  lias  him- 
self preached.  How  they,  together  with  their  father,  re- 
joice when  the  labors  of  the  church  are  linished,  and  he 

3  D 


50  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

can  exchange  his  priest's  mantle  for  the  lifi^ht  eveiy-tlay 
frock,  and  enjoy  the  calm  repose  of  the  Sabbath  evening, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  the  whole  village  visit,  and  enjoy 
the  sight  of  each  other. 

I  should  be  reproached  with  incompleteness,  if  I  should 
forget  to  relate  another  Trinitatis  joy,  merely  because  it 
was  less  frequent.  It  was  therefore  so  much  the  greater, 
that  the  pastor's  family  from  Koditz,  in  order  to  hear  the 
father  preach  and  to  see  him,  appeared  in  the  midst  of 
the  sermon,  and  Paul's  playmate,  the  pastor's  little  son, 
suffered  himself  to  be  seen  before  the  church  door.  If 
Paul  and  his  brother  discovered  him  from  their  not  very 
distant  grated  seat  in  the  choir,  there  began  on  both  sides 
fluttering  and  dancing,  heart-beating  and  sign-greeting,  — 
and  as  to  hearing  the  sermon,  had  the  Propaganda,  the 
ten  first  court  preachers,  one  behind  the  other,  risen  in 
the  pulpit  and  spoken  out,  there  would  have  been  no 
more  listening.  The  anticipation  of  this  Sabbath,  this 
mountain  of  precious  hopes,  the  breakfast  a  la  fourchette 
in  the  middle  of  the  day,  must  be  enjoyed  afar  off  in  the 
church.  But  who,  after  the  first  joyful  storm  of  parental 
and  childish  preparations  are  over,  can  describe  the  blessed 
zephyr-calm  of  the  evening !  At  furthest,  it  may  be  pos- 
sible to  paint,  that,  late  in  the  evening,  the  .Joditz  family 
accompanied  the  Koditz  far  beyond  the  village  on  their 
return,  and  that,  consequently,  this  sublime  and  wide  ex- 
tension of  bliss,  by  the  parents  and  by  the  little  curate's 
sons,  went  far  beyond  the  village,  and  into  space,  and 
left  impressions  in  after  life,  of  which  we  shall  hear  more 
in  future.* 

We  come  now,  my  dear  hearers,  to  those  Joditz  Idyls 

*  It  must  be  remembered  that  Paul  at  tliis  time  was  under  ten  years 
of  a";e. 


AUTOBIwG.RAJ'M*  .5^ 

that  were  enjoyed  by  P-aul  -mthout.  uoqrs,;in,4]ie  village, 
and  may  conveniently  he,  clividcd  into  those  wfi-in  Le  v^f.!^ 
not  at  home  himself,  and  those  when  his  father  was  ab- 
sent. I  begin  with  the  last,  as  among  the  unacknowledged 
pleasures  of  childhood,  when  the  father  journeys  from 
home,  when  the  power  of  academical  censure  and  freedom 
of  direction  for  the  childi-en  is  conferred  on  the  mother. 
Paul  and  his  brothers  were  able,  e\en  under  the  eyes 
of  the  business-entangled  mother,  to  leap  over  the  door 
of  the  courtyard,  to  hunt  the  wild  game  of  the  village, 
such  as  butterflies  and  gudgeons,  to  draw  sap  from  the 
birch-trees,  or  make  pipes  from  the  meadow-reeds,  to 
bring  home  a  new  playmate  in  the  schoolmasters  Fritz, 
or  help  ring  at  noon,  merely  to  be  lifted  from  the  ground 
by  the  turning  of  the  bell-rope. 

One  particular  pleasure  could  be  enjoyed  inside  the 
courtyard,  except  that  Paul  jnight  easily  have  broken  his 
neck,  and  thus  put  an  end  beforehand  to  his  whole  Pro- 
fessorship. It  consisted  in  climbing  by  a  ladder  to  a  sort 
of  balcony  that  hung  in  the  stable,  and  from  thence  jump- 
ing upon  the  hay,  that  lay  heaped  upon  the  lower  floor, 
merely  to  enjoy  in  the  transit  the  pleasant  sensation  of 
flying.  Sometimes  he  placed  the  old  piano  at  the  open 
window  of  the  upper  story,  and  played  beyond  all  measure 
down  into  the  village,  and  sought  to  attract  hearers  from 
the  passers-by.  He  increased  the  descent  of  the  sounds 
by  means  of  a  quill,  which  he  passed  over  the  chords  with 
his  right  hand,  while  he  struck  the  keys  with  his  left. 
Sometimes  he  struck  with  his  quill  upon  the  strings  ex- 
tended over  the  bridge,  but  he  could  not  get  much  har- 
mony there. 

The  Joditz  summer  Idyls  were  naturally  much  richer, 
when  we  left  our  village  wholly,  and  went  to  another,  or 


rz^  HF5S',  OF    JE'AN    PAUL. 

touthe  .city., .  "Was  there  a-beautiful  summer  day,  after  the 
lessaa  had"  befciiv  recited  from  :Lang's  Grammar,  a  more 
blessed  order  could  not  be  heard  than  "  Dress  yourself, 
for  after  dinner  you  shall  go  with  me  to  Koditz."  Dinner 
never  tasted  worse.  Paul  was  obliged  to  run  after  the 
long  strides  of  the  father ;  but  at  the  end  of  an  hour  he 
had  his  little  Pastor's  son  to  play  with  in  the  open  air, 
and  his  splendid  mother,  the  sound  of  whose  voice  yet 
echoes  in  his  heart  like  the  string  of  a  lute,  or  the  har- 
monica-bells through  the  distance  ;  and  at  the  same  time 
one  or  two  tiny  laurel-crowns,  large  enough  for  his  little 
head. 

The  father's  paternal  heart  rejoiced,  when  he  found  his 
Sunday's  sermon  understood  and  remembered,  of  which, 
indeed,  on  Sunday  evening,  he  repeated  the  principal 
heads,  and  the  polished  passages,  and  he  ordered  him  to 
repeat  the  same  again  before  the  pastor's  family,  —  and 
the  little  one,  I  may  safely  say,  went  on  without  fear  or 
faltering.  In  a  boy  who,  during  his  whole  life,  had  seen 
notliing  great,  —  neither  count,  nor  general,  not  even  a 
superintendent,  and  rarely  a  nobleman,  —  perhaps  twice 
in  a  year  the  Ilerr  von  Reitzenstein,  —  in  such  a  boy  it 
shows  courage  to  speak  publicly  in  the  apartment  of  the 
pastor's  family.  But,  timid  as  he  was  when  he  stood 
there  in  silence,  as  soon  as  he  began  to  speak,  courage 
and  animation  appeared.  Yes,  —  he  ventured  upon  some- 
thing yet  more  bold  one  afternoon  when  his  father  was 
absent.  He  took  the  psalm-book  and  went  to  visit  an  ex- 
tremely aged  woman,  old  as  tlie  hills,  who  had  been  bed- 
ridden for  many  years,  and  placing  himself  at  the  bedside, 
like  the  pastor  visiting  the  sick,  he  began  to  read  the 
psalms  for  the  dying.  But  he  was  soon  interrupted  by 
tears  and  sobs,  not  of  the  old  woman,  at  anything  she 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  53 

heard  from  the  psalm-book,  for  she  remained  cold  and 
unmoved,  but  by  his  own. 

The  father  took  our  hero  once  with  him  to  the  court  of 
Versailles,  as  they  might  indeed  without  exaggeration 
call  Zedwitz,  since  it  was  the  residence  of  the  patroness 
of  the  Joditz  pastor.  Every  time  he  went  to  court,  and 
in  summer  it  was  twice  a  month,  he  excited,  in  the  even- 
ing, the  utmost  rustic  astonishment,  both  in  his  wife  and 
children,  by  telling  about  the  exalted  personages,  and 
their  court  ceremonial,  the  court  entertainments,  the  ice- 
houses, and  Swiss  cows,  —  and  how  he  was  very  soon 
invited  from  the  domestics'  apartment  to  the  Herr  von 
Plotho,  or  even  to  the  Frjaulein,  to  whom  he  gave  exer- 
cises and  imitations  upon  the  piano,  and  at  last  was  intro- 
duced to  the  Baroness  von  Plotho  (born  a  Bodenhausen), 
and  always  on  account  of  his  liveliness  and  wit  was  taken 
to  the  same  table  even,  for  it  made  no  ditFerence  if  the 
most  distinguished  noblemen  of  Voigtland  sat  there  and 
dined,  —  Init,  like  an  old  Lutheran  court  preacher,  he 
knew  how  to  look  at  the  illimitable  greatness  of  rank, 
as  at  the  appearance  of  spectres,  without  trembling  at 
either. 

And  yet  I  would  say,  how  much  happier  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  present  day,  who  are  justly  educated  to  no 
prostration  before  exalted  rank,  and  are  strengthened 
fi-om  within  against  outward  splendor  !  Wliile  the  Joditz 
pastor's  sons  were  waiting,  expecting  in  one  short  hour  to 
prosti'ate  themselves  before  the  Zedwitz  throne,  the  inter- 
est of  the  occasion  was  heightened  by  the  ornamented 
coach,  which  was  sent  the  Thursday  preceding  Good- 
Friday,  before  the  evening  solenmity,  to  carry  the  father 
as  Confessor  to  the  whole  household.  The  sons  can 
speak  of  the  coach,  for,  before  the  evening  they  were 


54  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

carried  round  a  little,  with  infinite  delight,  in  the 
village. 

Picture  to  yourself  our  hero  going  to  Zedwitz,  to  be 
presented  to  the  reigning  family,  along  with  the  Court- 
Confessor,  who  had  spoken  of  him  there  with  too  much 
praise  and  love.  The  Baroness  von  Plotho  received 
him,  after  he  had  been  waiting  a  long  time  before  the 
pictures  of  her  ancestors  in  the  castle  below,  upon  the 
steps  above,  as  if  it  had  been  the  presence-chamber. 
Paul,  in  true  court  style,  rushed  up  and  caught  at  her 
dress,  and  gave  it  the  usual  kiss  of  ceremony.  And 
thus  the  whole  audience,  without  court-sword  and  upper 
court-marshal,  was  finished,  and  the  boy  was  permitted 
to  run  down  again ;  and  this  he  did  into  an  ornamental 
garden. 

It  would  have  been  difficult  for  any  other  ambassador 
than  our  at  that  time  little  Hildburghausen  Legationsrathy 
immediately  after  such  formal  etiquette  in  his  reception, 
to  breathe  through  the  romantic  hours  that  the  shaded 
walks,  the  fountains,  the  perfumed  hot-beds,  and  leafy 
balconies  must  have  offered  to  a  village  child,  rich  in 
fancy,  wlio  wandered  with  widely-expanded  breast,  for 
the  first  time,  in  the  midst  of  all  these  splendors.  But 
the  elevated  Paul  was  drawn  again  into  reality  by  a 
wooden  bird,  suspended  by  a  cord,  whose  iron  bill  he  was 
permitted  to  shoot  into  the  black  centre  of  a  shield  ; 
while  a  rich  fruit-cake,  sent  down  from  the  castle,  held 
him  between  flight  and  perch.  Its  sweet  aftertaste  re- 
mains' uneffaced  in  the  reUquiarium  of  our  hero.  Oh ! 
splendid  solitary  hours  and  walks  for  the  indigent  village 
child,  who.-?e  heart  so  delighted  to  be  filled,  were  it  only 
with  longing,  in  the  outward  world  ! 

Among  the  summer  Idyls  of  little  court  splendor,  were 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  55 

the  frequent  errands  that  Paul,  with  a  sack  across  his 
back,  must  make  to  the  grandparents  in  the  city  of  Hof, 
to  bring  meat  and  coffee,  and  all  that  was  not  to  be  had 
in  the  village,  at  least  not  for  the  extremely  small  prices 
of  the  city.  His  mother,  that  these  things  might  not 
appear  as  gifts,  furnished  him  with  a  few  small  pieces  of 
money.  The  grandmother,  liberal  to  her  daughter  and 
grandson,  and  avaricious  to  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  filled 
the  sack  with  everything  that  could  at  that  time  be  placed 
in  a  bill  of  fare. 

Tlie  two  hours'  walk  led  over  places  with  few  charms  ; 
through  a  wood,  where  babbled  a  brook  full  of  stones,  till 
at  last,  upon  an  elevated  field,  the  city  with  its  two  united 
church  towel's,  and  the  Saale  in  its  level  plain,  overpow- 
ered the  little  traveller  with  excessive  satisfaction.  Be- 
fore an  excavated  chasm,  near  the  suburbs,  through  wliich, 
according  to  report,  the  Hofers  fled  in  the  Thirty  Yeai's' 
War,  he  passed  with  that  shudder  at  all  war  and  martyr 
times  that  belongs  to  cliildhood ;  and  the  adjoining  cloth- 
fulling  mill,  with  its  perpetually  thundering  strokes,  and 
apparently  unmanageable  machinery,  expanded  his  vil- 
lage soul  wide  enough  to  take  in  the  whole  city. 

When  he  had  kissed  the  hand  of  the  tall,  serious  grand- 
father, seated  behind  his  loom,  and  given  his  mother's  let- 
ter (for  his  father  was  too  proud  to  beg)  to  his  delighted 
grandmother,  the  little  money  was  publicly  delivered,  and 
what  had  been  the  secret  article  of  the  petition,  privately, 
behind  the  door  of  the  passage.  Then  came  the  after- 
noon ;  and  with  his  full  knapsack,  and  his  sugared  al- 
monds for  Augustina,  in  the  highest  spirits  on  account  of 
the  parental  provision-ship  upon  his  back,  he  trotted  home 
again.  He  yet  remembers  a  summer's  day,  when  he  was 
returning  about  two  o'clock,  watching  the  splendid  sunny 


S6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

mountain-side,  with  its  waving  cornfields,  traversed  by 
the  coursing  shadows  of  the  clouds ;  and  when  a  till  now 
unexperienced,  undefined  longing  came  over  him,  of  min- 
gled pain  and  pleasure,  and  unremembered  wishes.  Ah, 
it  was  his  whole  nature  awaking  and  tliirsting  after  the 
heavenly  gifts  of  life,  that  lay  as  yet  concealed,  unde^ned, 
and  colorless  in  the  deep  folds  of  the  heart ;  but  an  acci- 
dental sunbeam  partially  reveals  them.  There  is  a  time 
of  longing,  which  knows  not  the  name  of  its  own  object, 
which  at  best  can  only  name  itself.  It  is  not  the  hour  of 
moonlight,  whose  silvery  sea  so  softly  melts  the  heart  and 
makes  it  feel  the  Infinite,  so  much  as  it  is  the  light  of 
the  afternoon  sun,  spreading  itself  over  a  wide  prospect, 
which  exercises  this  power  of  awakening  a  painful,  bound- 
less longing.  In  the  works  of  Paul  we  find  this  several 
times  described. 

In  the  winter's  snow,  Paul  was  often  obliged  to  travel, 
like  a  court  runner,  when  money  was  wanted,  to  nego- 
tiate a  loan  at  his  grandfather's  ;  so  too  in  the  coldest 
weather  he  would  follow  his  father  to  the  neighboi-ing 
parsonage.  He  may  thank  these  weekly  excursions  for 
many  later  cherished  powers,  and  especially  for  the  best 
antidote  to  his  opposing  physical  education ;  for  at  that 
time  fur  caps,  medicines,  and  exclusion  from  the  air,  united 
with  wannth  and  carefulness,  did  not  arm  one  against, 
but  prepared  the  way  for,  un  unhealthy  future.  But  this 
is  the  blessed  fortune  of  poor  and  village  children,  that 
the  summer,  witli  its  spring  and  autunm  on  the  right  and 
left,  happily  roots  out  the  noxious  weeds  of  winter.  The 
pale  winter  hot-house  plants  spring  at  once  into  showers 
and  healthy  air,  and  bareheaded  and  barefoot,  grow  and 
strengthen  upon  uncooked  nourishment.  It  is  only  the 
dear  little  delicate  Princesses  who  flourish  in  no  season. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  57 

The  good  people  meanwhile  will  not  believe  that  the 
summer  repairs  the  ravai^es  of  whiter ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  this  domestic  Avinter  season  is  tlie  physician  of 
those  spent  in  the  open  air. 

I  come  now  to  the  last  and  greatest,  and  never-to-be- 
forgotten  summer  Idyl,  that  always  happened  the  Mon- 
day after  St.  James's  day,  when  the  grandparents  sent  to 
bring  Paul's  tender  mother  in  a  coach  to  the  Hof  annual 
fair,  and  Paul  was  permitted  to  ride  with  her.  And 
here,  not  to  wrong  the  cold  historian,  I  would  merely  say, 
calmly  and  simply,  that  if  to  a  villager  a  common  city  is 
more  than  a  market  town,  it  follows  that  a  city  in  time 
of  the  fair  must  be  a  twofold  city,  and  consequently 
excel  in  splendor  all  that  a  village  youth  could  imagine. 
Thus  it  was  with  Paul,  whose  imagination  was  ever 
active. 

As  emperors  were  formerly  presented  with  draughts  of 
honor,  the  mother  was  received  by  her  parents  with  sweet 
wine,  and  the  son  went  with  a  little  of  it  in  his  head  to 
Silberer,  the  hair-curler.  He  cooled  the  head  from  with- 
out by  means  of  lieated  irons  and  sharp  screwing  of  the 
curled  locks ;  but  Paul  came  so  much  fresher,  newer,  and 
whiter  with  liis  curls  and  tonsure  from  the  powder-puff 
back  to  dinnei",  which  could  not  indeed  be  very  consider- 
able, as  the  grandfather  must  hasten  back  to  the  Rath- 
house,  to  watch  over  the  selling  of  his  bales  of  cloth. 
At  the  evening  meal,  as  with  the  ancient  Romans,  there 
was  more  time  and  less  frugality.  The  afternoon  was 
splendid  ;  when,  free  from  all  surveillance.,  and  deafened 
and  dazzled  by  the  variegated  and  loud  tumult  of  men 
and  goods,  Paul,  rich  with  his  groschen  of  fair-money 
from  his  grandmother  in  his  pocket,  could  purchase 
everything ;  he  would  secretly  purchase  something  to 
3* 


58  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

carry  to  the  solitary  house,  but  as  all  were  absent  and 
it  was  gloomily  lonely,  he  mingled  again  with  the  throng- 
ing multitude. 

The  most  respectable  and  beautiful  ladies  sat  at  the 
windows  in  the  second  stories  of  the  houses.  As  he  passed, 
Paul  fell  in  love  with  them,  and  as  they  were  ignorant  of 
his  existence,  from  the  street  below  lie  fell  in  imagination 
upon  their  necks.  Yet  none  was  so  distinguished,  through 
the  elevation  of  the  apartment,  or  the  ornaments  upon 
her  head,  as  his  favorite  sultana  the  little  country  girl, 
Augustina,  in  Joditz,  for  wliom  he  bought  almonds  and 
raisins.  Towards  seven  o'clock,  under  the  beams  of  the 
evening  sun  that  embellished  and  gilded  every  object,  the 
noise  and  pleasure  were  continually  augmenting;  but 
he  must  now  return  to  the  house,  for  the  gi-andfather, 
having  completed  his  sales,  supped  at  this  hour,  and  aU 
the  family  must  be  together.  I  would  fain  present  every 
one  at  this  evening  meal,  for  Paul,  having  eaten  enough 
before,  tasted  little  of  it ;  but  so  much  more  willingly 
shall  I  follow  him,  after  the  second  grace,  to  the  street 
again,  where  he  was  as  blest  as  a  young  soul  could  be 
that  had  just  escaped  from  a  country  parsonage. 

In  the  deepening  twilight,  and  as  the  night  approached, 
the  youth  was  wholly  enclianted  and  inspired.  During 
the  fair,  Turkish  music  was  heard  in  the  princii)al  streets; 
deafened  and  silent,  the  people  and  children  followed  tlie 
sounds,  and  the  village  boy  heard  for  the  first  time  drums 
and  fifes,  and  the  Turkish  cymbals.  "  In  me,"  these  are 
his  own  woi'ds,  "  wlio  never  ceased  to  tliirst  after  musical 
sounds,  they  produced  a  music-intoxication,  and  I  heard, 
as  the  drunken  see,  the  world  doubled  and  in  fiight.  The 
fife  carried  me  away  most  powcrfidly  through  the  high 
notes  of  the  musical  scale.     How  often  did  I  seek  before 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  59 

falling  to  sleep,  when  fancy  was  the  finger-boai'd  that 
came  easiest  to  hand,  to  hear  again  those  echoing  sounds ; 
and  how  am  I  blessed  when  I  liear  them  again,  as  deeply- 
blest  as  if  my  childhood  had  become  immortal,  merely 
through  the  power  of  sound,  and  with  it  spake  to  me 
again !  Ah  !  faint,  thin,  invisible  sounds  bear  and  harbor 
whole  worlds  for  the  heart,  and  are  in  themselves  soids 
for  the  soul." 

Perhaps  the  tones  of  the  higher  octave  penetrate  deep- 
est into  the  soul.  Engel  asserts,  indeed,  that  the  peculiar 
harmony  is  sustained  between  the  low  and  the  high  tones, 
but  one  may  say  that  poetic  music  extends  over  both.  In 
the  dark,  deep  bass,  the  lowest  bass  sounds  move  slowly 
among  the  past,  and  in  the  passing  time.  On  the  contrary, 
the  sharp  heights  of  the  extreme  alto  shriek  and  sink 
deep  into  the  future,  or  summon  it  to  us,  while  these 
sharp,  acute  tones  speak  out.  Thus  the  high,  sharp  fifcing 
of  the  little  fifes  in  the  Russian  field  music  is  fearful  to 
me,  and  sounds  like  a  herald  calling  to  battle,  like  a  mel- 
ancholy early  Te  Deiim  for  future  bloodshed. 

I  fear  they  will  say  in  Germany  and  elsewhere,  that 
I  have  reserved  the  autumn  as  the  highest  Joditz  Idyl, 
when  it  can  lead  to  nothing  but  a  snow-path.  But  in  the 
autumn  a  fanciful  spirit,  like  Paul's,  enjoys  not  only  the 
autumn  itself,  but  the  winter  beforehand,  with  its  domestic 
joys,  and  the  spring  also,  with  its  poetic  prospect-sketch- 
ing. In  the  mean  time,  the  approaching  spring  has  melted 
into  summer,  and  the  summer  —  which,  in  the  tranquil 
and  usual  state  of  his  fancy  —  the  summer  is  allied  to 
autumn,  and  yet  more  distinctly  to  spring.  But  now,  in 
the  late  summer,  through  the  half-denuded  trees,  far  oflp 
in  other  years,  he  sees  snow-mountains  all  covered  with 
flowers,  and  goes  to  them,  in  fancy,  like  a  bee  intoxicated 


6o  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

with  honey  ;  but  when  he  approaches  them  they  melt 
away.  The  widely-extended  plans  of  summer  journeys 
and  summer  harvests  are  anticipated  and  enjoyed,  and 
when  the  spring  itself  arrives,  the  chief  business  is  already 
over.  As  the  landscape-painter  prefers  the  autumn,  so 
does  the  spiritual  painter,  the  poet,  especially  in  old  age. 

But  in  the  autumn  our  hero  turned  with  wonderful 
facility  to  the  reverse  of  the  picture,  and  nurtured  within 
himself  the  strong  inclination  to  quiet  domestic  Life,  and 
to  spiritual  nest-making :  he  became  a  domestic  snail, 
who  withdraws  contentedly,  and  loves  to  live  in  the  nar- 
rowest recesses  of  his  house.  Only  he  will  sometimes 
open  his  snail-shell  sufficiently  to  thrust  out  his  four 
feelers,  not  wide  enough  to  spread  them  like  butterflies' 
wings  in  the  air,  but  to  stretch  them  ten  times  higher 
towards  heaven,  at  least  reaching  with  every  filament  one 
of  the  four  satellites  of  Jupiter.  Of  this  foolish  union  of 
desires  for  near  and  distant  objects  —  which,  like  the 
telescope,  by  mere  reversion,  doubles  either  the  distant 
or  the  near  —  more  will  appeal*  in  our  readings  than  I 
desire,  or  than  autumn  alone  has  room  for. 

This  domestic  disposition  showed  itself  in  the  reveries 
of  the  boy.  He  deemed  the  young  swallows  happy,  be- 
cause they  could  sit  so  secretly  and  safe  througli  the 
night  in  their  walled  nests.  If  he  climbed  upon  the  roof 
of  the  great  pigeon-house,  he  was  immediately  at  home 
in  this  apartment  full  of  little  chambers,  or  pigeon-holes, 
and  the  front  was  to  him  like  the  Louvre  or  the  Escurial 
in  little.  I  fear  that  I  shall  injure  myself,  if  I  take  up  in 
my  lectures  such  childish  trivialities  as  that  he  made  a 
complete  fly-house  out  of  fine  clay,  and  built  a  castle  as 
long  and  as  broad,  and  somewhat  higher  tlian  a  man's 
hand.     The  whole  house  was  red,  striped  with  ink,  and 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  6l 

divided  into  square  tiles.  Within,  it  was  of  two  stories, 
with  stairs,  galleries,  chambers,  and  a  spacious  garret ;  on 
the  outside  it  had  balconies  and  projections.  A  chimney 
was  provided,  covered  witli  glass,  that  the  flies  might  not 
pass  out  instead  of  the  smoke.  In  no  part  were  windows 
spared,  and  I  dare  assert  that  the  palace  consisted  far 
more  of  windows  than  of  walls.  "When  Paul  saw  innu- 
merable flies  in  this  wide  palace,  up  stairs  and  down  stairs, 
and  running  into  all  the  great  apaitments,  and  from  them 
into  the  balconies  and  projections,  he  represented  to  him- 
self their  domestic  happiness,  and  wished  to  enter  with 
them,  and  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the  landlord,  who 
could  withdraw  from  the  spacious  apartments  to  the  lower 
and  smaller :  then  how  insignificant  and  little  the  parson- 
age appeared  to  him  ! 

He  has  later,  as  an  author,  described  this  domestic, 
comer-loving  disposition,  in  Wuz,  in  Fixlein,  and  in  Fibel; 
and  yet  the  man  remains  full  of  longing  for  every  little 
neat,  humble  shepherd's  cottage  of  two  stories,  with  flow- 
ers before  the  windows,  and  a  little  garden  which  he  could 
water  from  the  window ;  and  the  good  domestic  fool  can 
sit  contentedly  in  a  coach,  and,  looking  out  at  the  side- 
windows,  say,  "  What  a  pretty,  quiet,  convenient,  fire-pi'oof 
apartment !  while  out  there,  the  great  villages  and  gardens 
sweep  along  by  us."  This  is  certain,  that  he  could  not 
live,  still  less  write,  in  a  knight's-hall,  or  St.  Peter's 
church,  —  it  would  be  to  him  a  market-place  covered 
by  a  roof.  At  the  same  time  he  would  be  able  to  write, 
or  live  upon  Mont  Blanc  or  ^tna,  where  all  is  adapted 
and  fitting  environment ;  lor  the  works  of  man  only  are 
not  small  enough  for  him,  but  great  nature  cannot  be  too 
much  expanded.  The  littleness  of  the  works  of  man  is 
yet  diminished  through  the  vastness  of  nature. 


62  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

The  Joditz  autumn  Idyl  is  painted  by  what  I  have 
already  said.  Autumn  leads  people  to  tlieir  homes,  and 
the  harvest  fills  the  home  with  plenty  for  the  winter  nest ; 
prepared  for  winter,  like  the  crossbill,  who  in  icy  months 
builds  her  nest  and  has  her  young.  From  this  time,  after 
the  first  threshing,  Paul  must  follow  the  traces  of  the 
crows  in  the  woods,  and  the  cries  of  birds  of  passage, 
Avhose  long  processions  he  followed  with  infinite  delight, 
because  they  were  the  prelude  to  that  intimate  domestic 
winter  in-nesling^  —  and  it  pains  me  now,  on  his  account, 
to  think  how  he  could  enjoy  the  shrieks  of  the  geese, 
flying  over  in  flocks  in  the  autumn,  as  forerunners  of 
winter  time.  From  this  cell  and  winter  disposition  of  my 
hero,  I  understand  why  he  read  with  such  singular  delight 
all  travellers'  descriptions  of  winter  climates,  like  Spitz- 
bergen  and  Greenland ;  for  the  representation  of  simple 
distress  upon  paper  hardly  explains  his  delight  thereat, 
for  then  he  would  have  felt  the  same  delight  in  reading 
of  glowing  distress  in  hot  countries.  On  the  contrary, 
the  well-known  joy  of  the  man  over  every  quarter  of  an 
hour  that  is  taken  from  the  length  of  the  day  in  autumn, 
I  would  ascribe  to  his  love  for  superlatives,  even  of  oppo- 
site kinds  ;  in  short,  for  everything  infinitely  great  or 
infinitely  small,  for  the  maxima  and  minima  of  every- 
thing, lie  rejoiced  just  as  much  over  the  increase  of  the 
length  of  the  day,  and  wished  for  nothing  so  much  as  a 
Swedish  summer,  day.  We  everywhere  observe  with 
what  innumerable  satisfactions  and  conveniences  God 
arms  and  furnishes  man  upon  his  path  of  life,  —  while 
little  is  to  be  found  on  the  right  or  left  of  it,  —  so  that, 
be  it  never  so  dark  about  him,  he  can  always  discern 
black  from  white ;  and  a  double  instinct  is  given  him 
both  for  land  and  water,  that  he  may  neither  drown  nor 
thirst. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  63 

These  are  merely  autobiogi*aphical  touches,  which  a 
future  biographer  may  conveniently  work  into  a  portrait, 
and  for  which  he  will  perhaps  thank  me.  I  must  refer 
to  this  contented  winter  predilection,  to  understand  why 
Paul  recalled  another  dry  autumn  pleasure  with  so  much 
satisfaction.  In  the  autumn  evenings  the  father  went 
with  Paul  and  Adam  to  a  potato-field  lying  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Saale.  One  boy  carried  a  hoe  upon  liis  shoul- 
der, the  other  a  hand-basket ;  and  while  the  father  dug 
as  many  new  potatoes  as  were  necessary  for  supper,  and 
Paul  gathered  them  from  the  ground  and  threw  them 
into  the  basket,  Adam  gathered  the  best  nuts  from  the 
hazel-bushes.  It  was  not  long  before  Adam  fell  back 
into  the  potato-beds,  and  Paul  in  his  turn  climbed  the 
nut-tree.  Then  they  returned  home,  satisfied  with  their 
nuts  and  potatoes,  and  enlivened  by  running  for  an  hour 
in  the  free,  invigorating  air  ;  every  one  may  imagine  the 
delight  of  returning  home  by  the  light  of  the  harvest 
festivals. 

Wonderfully  fresh  and  green  are  two  other  harvest 
flowers,  preserAjed  in  the  chambers  of  his  memory,  and 
both  are  indeed  trees.  One  w^as  a  full-branched  muscatel 
pear-tree  in  the  pastor's  courtyard,  the  fall  of  whose  splen- 
did hanging  fruit  the  children  sought  through  the  whole 
autumn  to  hasten ;  but  at  last,  upon  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant days  of  the  season,  the  father  himself  reached  the 
forbidden  fruit  by  means  of  a  ladder,  and  brought  the 
sweet  paradise  down,  as  well  for  the  palates  of  the  whole 
family  as  for  the  cooking-stove. 

The  other  always  green,  and  yet  more  splendidly 
blooming,  was  a  smaller  tree,  cut  on  Saint  Andrew's 
evening  from  the  old  wood,  and  brought  into  the  house, 
where  it  was  planted  in  water  and  soil  in  a  large  pot, 


64  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

that  on  Christmas  night,  when  it  was  hung  with  golden 
fruit,  it  might  retain  its  verdant  leaves.  This  birch,  not 
a  weeping,  but  a  festive  tree,  is  the  only  one  which,  in 
the  dark  month  of  December,  even  till  Christmas,  is 
strewed  with  the  blossoms  of  joy,  namely,  its  own  orna- 
mented leaves  ;  every  one  of  which  indicates  a  cherished 
pleasure,  and  shows  that  every  child  under  tliis  May- 
tree  of  winter  may  celebrate  his  tabernacle  feast  of  hope.* 

My  hearers  will  suffer  me  to  describe  Paul's  Christ- 
mas festival,  for  in  his  works  we  meet  with  pictures  of 
the  same  that  far  exceed  mine,  and  merely  two  circum- 
stances may  be  added  as  features  of  the  picture.  When 
Paul  on  Christmas  morning  stood  before  the  lighted  tree 
and  the  lighted  table,  and  saw  this  new  world  of  gold  and 
splendor  and  gifts  lying  around,  and  discovered  and  took 
possession  of  one  rich  gift  after  another ;  the  first  emo- 
tion that  arose  in  him  was  not  a  tear,  not  even  a  tear  of 
joy,  but  a  deep  sigh  over  life,  —  in  one  word,  the  transi- 
tion, the  leap,  or  the  flight  (call  it  as  you  will),  from  the 
wild-swelling,  sporting  sea  of  Fancy,  to  the  firm  land, 
limited  and  limiting,  —  this  transition  the  boy  expressed 
with  a  sigh  for  a  greater  and  more  beautiful  land.  But 
before  the  sigh  was  breathed  out,  Paul  felt  that  the 
highest  degree  of  gratitude  was  due  to  his  mother ;  this 
thought  exerted  its  power  in  a  short  time,  and  the  day- 
break of  reality  soon  scattered  and  extinguished  the 
moonlight  of  fancy. 

Here  may  be  mentioned  a  peculiarity  of  Paul's  father 
that  occurred  at  the  same  moment.  The  father,  so  joy- 
fully sympathizing  with  every  joy,  so  willingly  consent- 

*  We  have  become  so  familiar  with  the  beautiful  German  custom 
of  the  Christkind  tree,  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  add  any  explanation  to 
the  text.  —  Tr. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  65 

ing  to  every  gift,  came  on  Christmas  morning,  as  with  a 
mourning  veil  on  his  face,  from  his  own  room  into  the 
splendidly  lighted  common  apartment.  The  mother  her- 
self assured  them  of  her  unconsciousness  of  the  cause  of 
this  yearly  melancholy,  and  no  one  else  had  the  courage 
to  question  him.  He  left  to  the  mother  the  whole  trouble 
and  joy  of  being  table-decker  for  the  holy  Christkind 
night.  In  this  he  was  not  like  Paul,  who  always  at  the 
Christmas  festival  helped  liis  wife  to  prepare  for  the  chil- 
dren, if  he  did  not  himself  do  the  whole.  In  fact,  he  had 
earlier.  —  when  they  were  simpletons,  months  before  the 
representation  of  this  enchanting  opera,  —  lying  upon  the 
sofa,  played  the  part  of  pretended  ticket-bearer  {Lugen- 
Zettel-Trdger)  or  theatre-poet,  and  scene-painter,  and 
when  the  evening  came  he  was  perfect,  as  opera-director, 
and  master  of  machinery.  For  every  one  of  the  three 
children  he  had  divided  the  sections  of  the  table  with 
lights,  and  placed  the  presefits  for  the  maid  aside,  upon  a 
near  table.  In  short,  all  upon  the  tables  and  the  tree 
were  so  advantageously  arranged,  and  so  perfectly  or- 
dered, that  the  whole  shone  with  splendor,  and  his  eyes 
with  delight. 

Nevertheless,  the  father's  mourning  may  be  explained 
by  the  son,  and  indeed  by  this,  that  the  latter  has  had  for 
many  years,  notwithstanding  his  outward  joyfulness  and 
activity,  the  same  thing  to  conceal.  It  is  with  both  only 
that  weary,  sad  feeling  of  comparison  between  the  manly 
harvest  of  reality,  and  the  childish  spring  befoi-e  them, 
where  luxuriantly  from  the  very  trunk  of  reality  the  blos- 
soms of  the  ideal  flourish  without  waiting  for  leaves  or 
branches. 

The  childish  honey  and  wine  of  joy  still  required  the 
ideal  ether  of  faith    in    a   Christkindlein   who   brousht 


66  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

them ;  for  as  soon  as  lie  had  accidentally  observed,  by 
the  witness  of  his  senses,  that  only  human  and  not  spir- 
itual hands  had  broken  off  and  laid  upon  the  table  the 
flowers  and  fruits  of  joy,  the  Eden  splendor  and  Eden 
perfume  went  out,  and  were  extinguished,  and  there  re- 
mained only  the  common  earth  of  the  garden-bed.  But  it 
is  incredible  how  he,  like  all  children,  anned  himself 
against  the  heaven-disturbers  of  this  divine  faith,  and  how 
long  he  held  fast  his  supernatural  revelations  against  all 
the  discoveries  of  his  growing  years,  against  all  the  hints 
of  accident,  until  he  at  last  saw  and  conquered,  rather 
than  was  conquered.  So  difficult  is  it  for  man,  in  all  re- 
ligions, to  descend  to  the  men,  who  up  in  tlie  air  of  heaven 
act  the  benevolent  gods. 

Thus  far  extend  the  Joditz  Idyls,  that  endured  for 
parents  and  children  as  long  as  the  Trojan  war.  The 
expenses  for  four  sons  were  always  increasing,  and  for 
these  sons  tbe  prospect  of 'better  schools  was  neces- 
sary. Upon  the  father,  also,  the  discouragement  weighed 
heavily,  that  his  best  years  and  finest  powers  should  be 
wearied  and  consumed  in  so  narrow  a  village  church. 
At  last  the  pastor  Barnikel  died,  in  Schwarzenbach-on- 
the-Saale,  a  little  city  or  a  great  market-town.*  Death  is 
the  only  theatre-director  and  machinery-master  on  the 
earth.  He  takes  a  man  as  a  cipher  from  a  row  of  num- 
bers, from  the  left,  the  middle,  or  the  right,  and  behold, 
the  whole  collection  changes  its  value  and  order.  The 
right  of  presentation,  which  the  Baron  von  Schonburg- 
"Waldenburg  and  tlie  Frau  von  Plotho  possessed  alter- 
nately, came   at  this  time  into  the  hands  of  Richter's 

*  Markt-Jlecken,  a  borough  town  that  has  the  privilege  of  holding 
one  or  more  annual  fairs,  and  is  tho  medium  between  a  city  and  a 
village.  —  Tk. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  6-J 

patroness,  who  rejoiced  long  and  undisguisedly  at  the  op- 
portunity of  serving  and  rewarding  the  good,  disinterested, 
and  indigent  pastor.  But  on  this  account  he  did  not  go 
oftener,  but  more  rarely  to  Zedwitz.  In  fact,  a  petition 
for  a  pastorship,  or  merely  a  verbal  request,  would  have 
been  to  him,  who,  from  his  old  faith,  believed  that  the 
holy  spirit  alone  could  call  to  the  sacred  office,  an  act  of 
impure  simony  ;  thus  the  {)ride  of  l)irth  in  the  patroness 
must  fall,  without  a  petition  and  without  a  visit,  before 
the  pride  of  office  in  the  poor  indigent  black  coat.  I  will 
impart  to  you  here  a  secret  of  the  Zedwitz  court,  which 
he  has  himself  long  since  forgotten,  although  I  relate  it 
from  the  mouth  of  the  old  pastor  as  it  happened  on  the 
day  of  his  calling.  As  he  was  usually  admitted  first  by 
the  old  Herr  von  Plotho,  he  could  not  withhold  from  my 
father  the  news  of  his  good  fortune,  but  gave  it  to  him 
himself,  or  rather  gave  him  the  presentation,  while  his 
wife  was,  in  fact,  the  patroness,  and  was  entitled  to  inform 
the  pastor  formally  of  his  appointment.  It  naturally 
happened,  as  the  newly-created  pastor  entered  her  apart- 
ment, that  he  presented  his  thanks,  and  her  extreme 
displeasure  was  excited  against  her  husband,  that  he  did 
not  leave  the  discovery  to  herself.  For  the  rest,  they 
were  both  disposed,  while  they  presented  the  vocation 
with  their  own  hand,  to  spare  the  penniless  friend  the 
mortification  of  all  the  graces  and  douceurs  of  the  donor. 

As  I  so  well  know  your  benevolent  dispositions  to  both 
father  and  son,  I  can  easily  guess  that  you  are  calling  out 
with  delight :  "  This  is  indeed  precious  news,  that  at  last 
the  moon  has  changed  in  the  parsonage,  and  promises 
more  beautiful  weather.  We  see  the  jovial  amateur  in 
music,  coming  earlier  than  usual  from  the  barony  (he 
would  gladly  have  entertained  them  longer  from  grati- 


68  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

tude),  and  running  with  his  bull-dog  to  his  home,  to  im- 
part as  early  as  possible  liis  own  delight  to  his  family, 
especially  to  the  poor  wife,  who  had  hitherto  suffered 
enough  in  gleaning  the  tithes  from  the  parental  fields." 

Serious  and  melancholy,  he  arrived  with  the  joy-post ; 
but  not  merely  because  upon  the  flower-  and  haj-vest- 
crown  of  happiness,  as  upon  the  bridal-crown,  there  is 
commonly  hanging  a  dew-drop  that  looks  like  a  tear,  but 
because  he  could  not  take  leave  of  the  beloved  flock, 
which  had  been  to  him  for  many  years  his  second  family, 
in  that  great  family  praying-hall,  the  church,  without 
weeping;  and  then  the  quiet,  calm,  unrestrained,  simple, 
still  life  of  the  village  would  in  futux-e  hang  as  a  distant 
picture  in  his  memory.  Indeed,  the  country  life  is  like 
life  at  sea,  of  a  uniform  color,  without  the  interchange  of 
little  and  great  events  ;  but  it  affords  a  species  of  unifonn 
tranquillity,  which  works  healthily,  as  the  equal  and 
uniform  sea  favorably,  upon  the  consumptive,  while  no 
clouds  of  dust  are  breathed,  and  no  insects  torment. 

I  believe  I  have  now  fulfilled  my  obligations  as  Pro- 
fessor of  my  own  history  in  reference  to  the  village  of 
Joditz,  the  place  of  my  education,  in  such  a  manner,  that 
in  the  next  reading  I  may  accompany  the  hero  and  his 
family  to  Schwarzenbach-on-the-Saale,  where  indeed  the 
curtain  of  his  life  may  rise  a  few  turns  higher,  and  we 
may  see  sometliiiig  more  of  the  principal  actors  than,  as 
hitlierto,  the  mere  infancy.  For  in  fact  we  send  him  out 
of  the  present  reading  into  the  next  as  a  twelve-yeared 
man,  with  ten  times  less  knowledge  than  the  five-yeared 
Christian  Ileinrich  Ileineke  von  Lubeck  (who  after  his 
examination  returned  again  to  the  bosom  of  his  nurse),* 

*  The  biographer  of  this  miraculous  child,  in  his  "  Lehen,  Thaten, 
Beisen,  und  Tod,"  tells  us  that  at  five  years  old  he  understood  the  Latin 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  69 

without  knowledge  of  nature,  country,  or  world-histoiy, 
except  the  little  part  which  was  himself;  without  French 
or  music ;  in  Latin,  only  a  little  bit  of  Lange  and  Spec- 
chis  ;  in  short,  such  an  empty  transparent  skeleton  with- 
out learned  nourishment  or  muscle,  that  I  can  scarcely 
wait  for  the  time  and  place,  Schwarzenbach-on-the-Saale, 
where  he  must  begin  to  know  something,  and  to  nourish 
his  skeleton. 

We  leave  now  mth  him  that  unknown  village ;  and, 
although  it  has  not  gained  a  laurel-crown  through  a  bat- 
tle, as  many  other  villages,  yet  he  dares,  I  believe,  hold 
it  high  in  liis  heart  and  say  even  to-day,  as  if  he  had  left 
it  only  to-day :  "  Dear  village,  thou  art  to  me  dear  and 
precious.  Two  little  sisters  lie  in  thy  bosom.  My  con- 
tented father  found  in  thee  his  fairest  Sundays.  Under 
the  morning  glow  of  life,  I  saw  thy  waves  shining.  Thy 
well-known  inhabitants,  whom  I  would  thank,  have,  hke 
my  father,  long  since  left  thee,  —  but  to  their  unknown 
children  and  grandchildren  my  heart  wishes  happiness, 
and  that  every  battle  may  pass  far  from  them." 

[Here  ends  the  Idyllic  life  of  Jean  Paul.  In  this  little 
village  of  Joditz,  too  insignificant  to  be  mentioned  in  any 
Gazetteer,  lie  went  as  a  little  child  of  two  years  old,  and 
remained  till  his  thirteenth  year.  Here  he  received  those 
impressions,  and  his  genius  that  direction  wliich  followed 
him  through  life  and  influenced  all  his  works.  He  greets 
this  village  as  his  spiritual  birthplace,  the  first  and  long- 
est place  of  his  education,  and  where  he  lived  the  most 
important,  the  boys'  Olympiad.     Never  is  he  so  much  at 

and  French  language?,  had  read  history,  geography,  and  the  Institu- 
tions of  the  Roman  Laws,  had  a  good  knowledge  of  anatomy  and  the- 
ology, was  witty  and  penetrating  in  conversation,  but  lived  altogether 
upon  the  milk  of  his  nurse. 


7° 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


home  in  his  descriptions  as  in  the  little  village  parsonage 
and  church.  The  joys  of  humble  domestic  life  are  the 
joys  he  delights  to  describe.  The  village  festivals,  the 
church  consecrations,  are  all  dear  to  his  religious  spirit ; 
and  his  grandfather's  altar,  the  Culmberg,  was  the  spot 
he  had  always  before  him.] 


CHAPTER    III. 


Schwabzenbach-on-tiie-Saale.  —  First  Kiss.  —  Rector.  —  The 
Lord's  Supper. 

ILL  my  hearers  believe  that  Paul,  a.d.  1773 
through  the  whole  packing  and  mov-  '^'- 1^. 
ing,  going  forth  and  going  in,  thought  of  noth- 
ing, took  no  leave  of  jiarents  or  children,  ob- 
served nothing  on  the  way  of  two  miles  long,  except  the 
already  mentioned  tailor's  son,  in  whose  pocket  he  had 
tucked  the  soot-sketched  kings  for  his  beloved  ?  But  so 
it  is  in  childhood  and  boyhood,  —  tliey  retain  the  little,  — 
they  forget  the  great,  and  they  know  no  reason  for  either. 
The  child,  that  is  everywhere,  and  above  everything 
wishing  for  the  open  air,  retains  less  the  departure  than 
the  arrival;  for  the  child  severs  ten  times  more  easily 
long-accustomed  relations,  than  transient  ones ;  and  first 
in  manhood,  exactly  the  contrary  disposition  appears. 
For  children  there  is  no  leave-taking,  for  they  acknowl- 
edge no  past,  only  the  present,  that  to  them  is  full  of  the 
future. 

Schwarzenbach-on-the-Saale  *  contained  indeed  much, 
—  a  parish  and  a  chaplain,  —  a  rector  and  a  chanter,  — 

*  Scliwarzenbach-sur-la-Saale  is  a  town  of  about  sixteen  hundred 
inhabitants,  six  miles  from  Hof.  Paul  tells  us  its  capabilities.  It  had, 
besides,  large  quarries  of  marble.  —  Tr. 


72  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

a  parsonage  full  of  liltle  apartments,  and  two  large  ones. 
These  were  opposite  the  two  great  bridges,  with  the 
thereto  belonging*  Saale,  and  immediately  beside  it  a 
school-house,  that  was  as  large,  if  not  larger,  than  the 
whole  Joditz  parsonage.  Among  the  houses  there  was 
a  council-house,  not  to  reckon  the  tall,  empty  castle ! 

At  the  same  time  with  the  father,  a  new  rector  en- 
tered upon  his  duties.  Werner,  from  Merseburg;  a 
handsome  man,  with  a  high  brow  and  nose ;  —  full  of 
fire  and  feeling,  —  with  overpowering  natural  eloquence, 
—  as  full  of  questions  and  comparisons  and  speeches  as 
father  Abraham,  but  without  any  depth  either  in  conver- 
sation or  in  other  sciences.  Meanwhile  he  helped  his 
poverty  on  this  reverse  side  by  a  head  full  of  liberty- 
speeches  and  zeal.  His  tongue  was  the  lever  to  childish 
minds.  His  principle  was,  to  let  us  learn  in  the  grammar 
only  the  most  necessary  forms  of  language,  by  which  he 
understood  the  declensions  and  conjugations,  and  then 
skip  at  once  to  the  reading  of  an  author.  Paul  must 
immediately  make  the  leap,  high  over  Langen's  Gollo- 
quia,  into  Cornelius,  —  and  he  went.  The  school-room, 
or  rather  the  school-ark,  contained  alphabetiers,  latin- 
ers,  great  and  little  maidens  (who,  like  a  scaffolding  of 
steps  in  a  greenhouse  or  an  old  Roman  theatre,  led 
from  the  ground  to  the  ceiling),  rector,  and  chanter, 
and  all  the  crying,  humming,  reading,  and  whipping. 
The  Latin  pupils  formed  a  school  within  a  school.  Very 
soon  the  Greek  grammar  with  the  declensions  and  the 
necessary  verbs  was  begun,  and  without  further  delay 
with  the  grammar  we  were  passed  on  to  translating  the 
New  Testament.  Werner,  who  often  in  the  excitement 
of  speaking  |)raised  himself  so  much,  tliat  lie  was  aston- 
ished at  his  own  greatness,  looked  upon  his  faulty  method 


AUTOBIOGRAPUY.  73 

of  teaching  as  wholly  origintil,  although  it  was  that  of 
Basedow  ;  and  Paul's  fljnng  progress  was  to  him  a  new 
proof  of  its  excellence.  About  a  year  afterwards,  some 
few  declensions  and  verbs  fi-om  Danzen's  Hebrew  gram- 
mar, written  in  Latin,  were  put  together  so  as  to  form  a 
bridge  of  boats  to  the  first  book  of  Moses,  the  beginning 
of  which,  the  threshold  of  exegesis  to  young  Hebricians, 
was  not  allowed  to  be  i-ead  by  the  uncultivated  Jews. 

I  shall  immediately  proceed  chronologically  with  the 
life  of  my  hero,  as  soon  as  I  have  thrown  an  eye  cursorily 
over  the  present  time,  that  you  may  see  how  much  he 
had  at  once  to  do  and  to  know. 

The  Greek  and  Hebrew  Testaments  he  must  translate 
verbally  into  the  Latin,  like  a  Vulgate-maker.  While 
Paul  was  translating  (he  was  the  only  Hebrew  scholar  in 
the  school),  the  rector  had  a  printed  translation  at  his 
elbow.  The  present  romance  writer  loved  the  Hebrew 
grammar  and  analyzing  trumpery  and  trifles,  especially 
as  it  was  a  secret  feature  of  his  predilection  for  domestic 
life  ;  he  collected  from  all  the  Schwarzenbach  corners  all 
the  Hebrew  grammars  he  could  find,  so  that  he  might 
possess  upon  critical  })oints,  vowels,  accents,  and  the  like, 
all  tliat  had  been  brought  upon  the  table,  at  the  analyzing 
of  any  particular  word.  For  this  purpose  he  stitched  to- 
gether a  quarto  book,  and  began  at  tlie  first  word,  of  the 
first  verse,  in  the  first  book  of  IVIoses,  and  gave  upon  that 
first  word,  upon  its  six  letters  and  vowels,  its  Dagesh  and 
Sheva  such  rich  instruction,  so  many  pages  from  all  the 
most  learned  grammarians,  that  this  very  first  word 
anfangs,  "  In  the  Beginning"  (as  he  would  have  gone  on, 
from  chapter  to  chapter,)  would  have  made  an  end  of 
him,  if  he  had  not  proceeded  to  the  second.  "What  is 
said  of  Quintus  jFi^Iein's  self-impelled  hunting  in  the 
4 


74  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Hebrew  folio  Bible  after  great  and  small  and  reversed  let- 
ters, described  in  the  "  first  letter-box,"  may  be  compared 
exactly  with  the  circumstance  in  Paul's  own  life.*  .... 

Immediately  after  the  arrival  in  Schwarzenbach  (I  yet 
go  on  cursorily),  he  received  instruction  upon  the  piano 
from  chanter  Gressel,  and  here  also,  after  some  dancing 
pieces,  he  learned  only  the  common  choral  accords,  and 
general  bass.  I  wish  God  would  give  the  poor  boy  only 
once  a  thorough  teacher,  little  prospect  as  there  is  at 
present  of  it.  Soon,  in  this  absence  of  all  instruction,  he 
began  to  play  all  the  pieces  that  could  be  collected  in  the 
place,  and  to  improvise  (phmitasieren)  upon  the  piano. 
He  learnt  the  grammar  of  music,  and  general  bass, 
through  perpetual  improvising  and  note-playing,  as  we 
learn  German  through  speaking. 

At  the  same  time  he  began  to  read  the  belle-lettre 
literature  of  Germany.  But  in  Schwarzenbach  there 
was  only  the  romantic  to  be  found,  and  of  this,  the  worst 
romances  from  the  first  half  of  tlie  last  century ;  but  of 
these  materials  he  formed  a  little  Babylonian  Tower,  al- 
though he  could  only  draw  out  one  at  a  time  for  reading. 
Among  all  the  histories  upon  the  book-shelves,  none  (for 
Schiller's  Armenian  at  that  time  only  exercised  half  its 
power  over  him)  poured  such  oil  of  joy  and  oil  of  nectar 
through  all  the  veins  of  his  being,  till  it  amounted  to 
physical  ecstasy,  as  the  reading  of  old  Robinson  Crusoe. 
He  knows  yet  the  hour  and  place  (it  was  evening  and  at 
the  window  opposite  the  bridge)  when  this  delight  oc- 
curred. A  second  romance,  "  Veil  Rosenstoch  von  Otto" 
(the  father  read  and  forbade  it,)  repeated  only  half  of  the 
former  excitement;  but  only  as  a  plagiary  and  book-thief 

*  There  is  an  admirable  translation  of  this  work  of  Jean  Paul  by 
Carlyle,  which  has  been  reprinterl  in  this  cc  mtry.  —  Tr. 


AUTOBIOGKAI'IIY.  75 

could  lie  enjoy  it,  wliilc  the  father  was  absent  from  his 
stu(l3^  Once  he  read  it  while  his  father  was  giving  a 
week-day's  sermon,  lying  upon  his  breast  in  an  empty 
loft.  I  envy  little  tlie  present  childi-en,  from  whom  the 
first  impression  of  the  child's,  and  the  child-like  Robinson 
is  withdrawn  in  favor  of  the  improved  versions  by  later 
workmen,  who  change  the  quiet,  solitary  island  into  an 
audience  hall,  or  into  a  valley  for  woodcocks,  and  send 
the  shipwrecked  Robinson  round,  with  a  book  in  his  hand 
and  a  dictatis  in  his  mouth,  to  turn  every  corner  of  the 
island  into  a  corner  school,  although  the  poor,  solitary 
man  has  employment  enough  to  provide  the  absolute 
necessaries  of  life. 

About  the  same  time,  or  shortly  after,  the  young  chap- 
lain, Volkel,  prayed  the  father  to  let  the  youth  come  to 
him  two  hours  after  dinner  daily,  that  he  might  leach 
him  geography  and  philosophy.  What  excited  him,  who 
had  no  particular  talent  for  education,  to  think  my  village 
helplessness  so  worthy  assistance  as  to  sacrifice  to  it  his 
hour  of  rest,  is  incomprehensible  to  me.  In  philosophy, 
he  read,  or  rather  I  read  to  him  "  The  Philosophy  of 
Gottsched"  which,  with  all  its  dryness  and  emptiness, 
refreshed  me  like  fresh  water,  by  its  novelty.  After- 
wards he  pointed  out  upon  a  map,  I  believe  of  Germany, 
many  cities  and  boundaries.  What  I  saw  upon  tlie  map 
1  know  not,  and  have  sought  in  vain  for  it  to-day  in  my 
memory.  I  trust  I  shall  prove,  that  among  all  living 
authors  (which  sounds  indeed  very  strong)  I,  perhaps, 
understand  the  least  of  the  maps  of  countries.  An  atlas 
of  maps,  if  I  endeavor  to  carry  them  in  my  head,  be- 
comes, instead  of  a  mythological  heaven,  a  hell  to  me. 
If  any  description  of  city  or  country  remains  in  my  head, 
it  is  tlie  little  T  liave  acquired  in  geographical  courses,  of 


76  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

which  part  is  the  statistics  of  the  post-wagon,  part  what 
the  post-jockey  has  cursorily  told  me  in  good  gymnastic 
German. 

But  I  thank  the  good  chaplain  so  much  more  for  his 
guidance  to  a  German  style,  which  consisted  in  nothing 
but  an  introduction  to  the  so-called  theology.  He  gave 
me,  namely,  the  task  of  carrying  out  the  evidence  of  a 
God  or  Providence  without  the  assistance  of  the  Bible. 
For  this  purpose,  I  received  an  octavo  leaf  upon  which 
the  propositions  were  barely  hinted,  and  the  proofs  and 
indications  from  Nosselt  and  Jerusalem  in  the  same 
rnanner.  These  cii)hei'ed  indications  were  explained  to 
me,  and  from  this  leaf,  like  Goethe's  botany,*  my  leaves 
wei*e  developed.  I  began  every  essay  with  warmth,  and 
the  glow  continued,  for  I  always  came  finally  to  the  end 
of  the  world  and  of  life,  to  the  joys  of  heaven,  and  to  all 
that  exuberance  in  which  the  young  vine,  in  the  warmth 
of  its  spring,  gushes  out,  although  in  harvest  only  it  shows 
its  spiritual  power.  To  whom  belongs  the  praise  and  the 
merit,  that  these  writing  hours  were  not  hours  of  toil,  but 
of  joy  and  liberty,  save  to  him  who  gave  the  flower  and 
fruit-bearing  theme  ?  For  one  might  think  and  maintain, 
that  the  filling  up  of  these  ex<  iting  propositions  may  be 
too  difficult ;  but  only  on  account  of  the  custom  of  school 
teachers  to  give  such  diffuse  and  undefined  themes,  so 
uncongenial  to  the  heart  of  youth,  or  extending  so  far  be- 
yond the  limits  of  their  circle  of  ideas,  such  as  in  the  note,! 

*  See  that  exquisite  poem  of  Goethe's,  tlie  Metamorphosis  of  Plants, 
where  he  expresses  his  idea  that  all  parts  of  the  plant  are  only  a  modi- 
fication of  the  leaf,  and  are  evolved  in  succession  till  the  circle  is 
complete,  and  a  new  leaf  springs  again  from  the  ripened  germ.  Mr. 
J.  S.  Dwight  has  given  an  accurate  and  very  poetical  translation  of 
this  poem. 

t  From   such   common,  cohl,  empty,  all   and  nothing-demanding 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  77 

of  wliicli  T  could  mention  a  thousand,  —  so  that  I  earnestly 
wish  a  man,  who  understands-youth  t\'ell,  would  set  him- 
self to  write  (notwithstanding  the  good  thoughts  and  in- 
vestigations that  he  may  have  formerly  delivered)  for  the 
present  nothing,  but,  after  the  measure  of  innumerable 
dissertations  upon  the  Sunday's  text,  a  volume  of  prize 
questions  for  teachers,  that  they  might  among  them  choose 
themes  for  their  pupils. 

Yet  better  than  all  subjects  for  themes  are  perhaps 
none.  The  youth  will  choose  for  himself,  as  he  would  a 
beloved  mistress,  the  matter  of  which  he  is  full,  and  with 
it  alone  he  can  create  that  which  is  vital.  Leave  the 
young  mind  in  freedom  with  its  time  and  its  themes,  as 
older  Avriters  require,  and  he  will  speak  out,  undisturbed 
by  your  touch ;  otherwise  he  is  like  a  bell  tliat  rests 
upon  'the  ground  ;  it  can  emit  no  sound  until  it  hangs 
untouched  in  the  free  air. 

But  thus  are  men  through  all  offices,  up  to  the  high- 
est. They  find  higher  renown  in  forming  fi'om  free 
spirits  merely  servile  machines,  and  proving  thereby 
their  creative  mastery  and  business  powers.  They  be- 
lieve they  shall  prove  in  this  manner,  that  they  can  make 
of  a  spirit  a  higher  machine,  and  from  this  produce  an 
intermediate,  and  upon  this  intermediate  another  may 
appear  to  be  hooked,  so  that  at  last  a  mother  marionette 
appears,  who  leads  a  mai-ionette   daughter,  who  on  her 

themes  as  "  the  praise  of  industry,"  "  the  importance  of  youth," 
&c.,  could  scarcely  the  ripest  and  richest  mind  draw  anything 
lively  or  original.  Other  themes,  such  as  "comparison  of  heroes 
and  poets,"  weighing  of  "  forms  of  government,"  &c.,  are  ostrich 
eggs,  upon  which  the  poor  pupil  sits  and  broods  with  his  too  short 
wings,  and  makes  nothing  warm  but  himself.  Between  both,  histori- 
cal themes  are  the  best,  such  as  the  description  of  a  fire,  a  plague,  a 
flood,  and  proofs  that  they  are  not  common,  &c.,  &c. 


78  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Bide  is  able  to  raise  a  little  dog  on  liigli.  All  accom- 
plished by  one  ho(^ing-together  of  the  same  machine- 
master.  God,  the  purely  free,  educates  only  the  free ; 
the  Devil,  purely  servile,  educates  only  his  like. 

My  weekly  exercises  I  would  not  exchange  for  any 
modem  ones.  These  may  do  much  to  educate  the 
world;  but  the  old  way  was  best  for  me,  as  it  ex- 
panded the  limits  of  my  philosophical  impulse,  and  suf- 
fered it  to  outrun  itself,  —  an  impulse  tliat  found  its  way 
out  from  my  own  head  into  a  small  octavo  book,  in  which 
I  sought  logically  to  establish  the  pliilosophy  of  seeing 
and  hearing.  I  related  some  of  it  to  my  father,  wlio 
blamed  and  misunderstood  me,  as  little  as  I  did  myself. 
Can  we  too  often  say  to  the  teachers  of  youth  —  very 
often  indeed  have  I  already  said  it  —  that  all  hearing 
and  reading  does  not  half  as  much  strengthen  or  delight 
the  mind  as  writuig  and  speaking. 

Do  not  life-long  translators  of  the  most  spiritual  and 
sententious  authors  (such  as  Ebert  of  Young)  write  their 
prefaces,  notes,  and  poems  wtli  their  original  wateriness  ? 
And  yet  some  improvement  might  be  expected  to  result 
from  the  repeated  readings  of  a  work,  by  wliich  its  deli- 
cacy and  peculiarities  are  better  understood ;  and  every 
translator  of  a  gonial  work  understands  and  enjoys  it  bet- 
ter than  a  mere  reader.  Reading  may  be  called  gather- 
ing into  the  school-money  chest,  or  poor's  purse ;  writing 
is  to  found  a  mint ;  and  the  die  that  stamps  a  dollar 
makes  richer  than  the  jingle  of  the  poor's  purse.*  In 
England,  language  is  formed  by  the  court  and  by  people 
of  the  world,  and  is  rarely  helped  by  reading. 

*  Kllngelbeulel,  a  purse  or  bag  with  a  long  handle  and  bell  attached 
to  it,  used  iu  the  church  to  collect  alms  during  divine  service,  or  the 
mass. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  79 

These  hours  at  the  chaplain's  were  to  end  with  chess- 
playing.  That  is  to  say,  sometimes  the  chaplain  proposed 
to  unite  a  lesson  in  geography  with  one  in  chess ;  but  in 
this,  as  in  everything  else,  I  remained  only  a  beginner ; 
for  although  I  went  at  the  appointed  hour,  notwithstand- 
ing the  headache,  as  a  game  of  chess  was  promised  me, 
it  was  forgotten  by  the  chaplain,  and  I  never  went  again. 
One  circumstance  I  can  hardly  understand,  that  my  fa- 
ther never  by  a  single  word  induced  me  to  stay  away, 
but  suffered  it  in  silence.  I  was  a  fool  to  run  away  from 
the  chaplain,  while  I  still  continued  to  love  him.  Indeed, 
I  joj'fuUy  remained  the  little  foot-post  messenger  between 
him  and  my  father ;  and  looked  at  him  with  love-glances 
and  pulses  of  joy  after  every  child's  baptism  (the  baptism- 
bell  rung  a  joy -mass  in  my  ears),  when  he  came  in  to  see 
my  father,  while  I  read  or  worked  not  far  from  the  table 
where  they  gossiped  away  the  half  or  the  whole  evening ; 
but  I  had,  as  I  have  said,  the  chess-board  in  my  head  and 
remained  at  a  distance. 

Heavens  !  how  can  men  gather  into  the  best  honey- 
cells  of  mine  and  of  so  many  poetic  and  female  natures 
such  summer  honey,  or  honey-vinegar  of  love  and  jeal- 
ousy, such  a  contradictory  mixture,  by  which  too  often 
the  fairest  days,  yes,  perhaps  the  tenderest  hearts,  are 
poisoned  and  fretted  with  wounds  ?  Truly  the  warmest 
hearts  have  often  only  half  a  grain  of  brain  or  under- 
standing : —  I  knew  of  nothing  but  the  warmest  love  ;  and 
so  the  sweet  soon  settled  down  to  acid  lees  and  sediment. 


A 


MY   FIRST   KISS. 

S  earlier  in  life,  on  the  opposite  church  bench,  so  I 
could  but  fall  in  love  with  Catharine  Barin,  as  she 


80  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

sat  always  above  me  on  the  school  bench,  with  her  pretty, 
round,  red,  small-pox-marked  face,  —  her  lightning  eyes, 
—  the  pretty  hastiness  with  which  she  spoke  and  ran.  In 
the  school  carnival,  that  took  in  the  whole  forenoon  suc- 
ceeding fast  nights,  and  consisted  in  dancing  and  playing, 
I  had  the  joy  to  perform  the  irregular  hop  dance,  that 
preceded  the  regular  with  her.  In  the  play,  "  Hoio  does 
your  neighbor  please  you?"  where,  upon  an  affirmative 
answer,  they  are  ordered  to  kiss,  and  upon  a  contrary, 
there  is  a  calling  out,  and  in  the  midst  of  accoUades  all 
change  places,  I  ran  always  near  her.  The  blows  were 
like  gold-beaters'  by  which  the  pure  gold  of  my  love  was 
beaten  out,  and  a  continual  change  of  places,  as  she  al- 
ways forbid  me  the  court,  and  I  always  called  her  to  the 
court,  was  managed. 

All  these  malicious  occurrences  (desertiones  malitioscB) 
could  not  deprive  me  of  the  blessedness  of  meeting  her 
daily,  when  with  her  snow-white  apron  and  her  snow- 
white  cap  she  ran  over  the  long  bridge  opposite  the  par- 
sonage window,  out  of  which  I  was  looking.  To  catch 
her,  not  to  say,  but  to  give  her  something  sweet,  a  mouth- 
ful of  fruit,  to  run  quickly  through  the  parsonage  court 
down  the  little  steps,  and  arrest  her  in  her  flight,  my 
conscience  would  never  permit ;  but  I  enjoyed  enough  to 
see  her  from  the  window  upon  the  bridge,  —  and  I  think 
it  was  near  enough  for  me  to  stand,  as  I  usually  did,  with 
my  heart  behind  a  long  seeing  and  hearing  tmmpet.  Dis- 
tance injures  true  love  less  than  nearness.  Could  I  upon 
the  planet  Venus  discover  the  Goddess  Venus,  while  in 
the  distance  its  charms  were  so  enchanting,  I  should  have 
warmly  loved  it,  and  without  hesitation  chosen  to  revere 
it  as  my  morning  and  evening  star. 

In  the  mean  time  I  have  the  satisfaction  to  draw  all 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  8l 

those,  who  expect  in  Schwarzenbach  a  repetition  of  the 
Joditz  love,  from  their  error,  and  inform  them  that  it 
came  to  something.  On  a  winter  evening,  wlien  mj 
Princess's  collection  of  sweet  gifts  was  prepared,  and 
needed  only  a  receiver,  the  Pastor's  son,  who,  among  all 
my  school  companions  was  the  worst,  persuaded  me,  when 
a  visit  from  the  chaplain  occupied  my  father,  to  leave 
the  parsonage  while  it  was  dark,  to  pass  the  bridge  and 
venture,  which  I  had  never  done,  into  the  house  where 
the  beloved  dwelt  with  her  poor  grandmother  up  in  a 
little  comer  chamber.  We  entered  a  little  alehouse  un- 
derneath. Whether  Catharine  happened  to  be  there,  or 
whether  the  rascal,  under  the  pretence  of  a  message,  al- 
lured her  down  upon  the  middle  of  the  steps,  or,  in  short, 
how  it  happened  that  I  found  her  there,  has  become  only 
a  di'eamy  recollection ;  for  the  sudden  lightning  of  tho 
present  darkened  all  that  went  behind.  As  violently  as 
if  I  had  been  a  robber,  I  first  pressed  upon  her  my  pres- 
ent of  sweetmeats,  and  then  I,  who  in  Joditz  never  could 
reach  the  heaven  of  a  first  kiss,  and  never  even  dai'ed  to 
touch  the  beloved  hand,  I,  for  the  first  time,  held  a  be- 
loved being  upon  my  heart  and  lips.  I  have  nothing  fur- 
ther to  say,  but  that  it  was  the  one  pearl  of  a  minute,  that 
was  never  repeated ;  a  whole  longing  past  and  a  dream- 
ing future  were  united  in  one  moment,  and  in  the  dark- 
ness behind  my  closed  eyes  tlie  fireworks  of  a  whole  life 
were  evolved  in  a  glance.  Ah,  I  have  never  forgotten  it, 
—  the  ineffaceable  moment ! 

I  returned  like  a  clairvoyant  from  heaven  again  to 
earth,  and  remarked  only  that  in  this  second  Cliristmas 
festival  Ruprecht  *  did  not  precede,  but  followed  it,  for 

*  Ruprecht  may  be  called  the  Father  Nicholas,  who  comes  on 
Christmas  eve,  and  plays  all  sorts  of  tricks. 

4*  S- 


82  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

on  my  way  home  I  met  a  messenger  coming  for  me,  and 
was  severely  scolded  for  running  away.  Usually  after 
such  warm  silver  beams  of  a  blessed  sun,  there  falls  a 
closing,  stormy  gust.  What  was  its  effect  on  me  ?  The 
stream  of  words  could  not  drain  my  paradise,  —  for  does  it 
not  bloom  even  to-day  around  and  forth  from  my  pen  ? 

It  was,  as  I  have  said,  the  first  kiss,  and,  as  I  believe, 
will  be  the  last ;  for  I  shall  not,  probably,  although  she 
lives  yet,  journey  to  Schwarzenbach  to  give  a  second. 
As  usual,  during  my  whole  Schwarzenbach  life,  I  was 
perfectly  contented  with  my  telegraphic  love,  which  yet 
sustained  and  kept  itself  alive  without  any  answering 
telegram.  But  truly,  no  one  could  blame  her  less  than  I, 
that  she  was  silent  at  that  time,  or  that  she  continues  so 
now,  after  the  death  of  her  husband  ;  for  later,  in  stranger 
loves  and  hearts,  I  have  always  been  slow  to  speak.  It 
did  not  help  me,  that  I  stood  with  ready  face  and  attrac- 
tive outward  appearance ;  all  corporeal  charms  must  be 
placed  over  the  foil  of  the  spiritual,  before  they  can  sufii- 
ciently  shine  and  kindle  and  dazzle.  But  this  was  the 
cause  of  failure  in  my  innocent  love-time,  that  without 
any  intercourse  with  the  beloved,  without  conversation 
or  introduction,  I  displayed  my  whole  love  bursting  from 
the  dry  exterior,  and  stood  before  her  like  the  Judas-tree, 
in  full  blossom,  but  without  branch  or  leaf. 


A 


JOKE   WITH   THE   RECTOR. 

S  the  Joking  companions*  knew  that  the  rector  read 
the  newspapers  in  his  school,  and  that  in  liis  school- 


*  "  Schrauhgenossenschaft "  may  be  translated  mystifi/iny  society, 
that  consisted  of  the  acquaintance  of  the  rector,  who  permitted 
among  each  other  such  practical  jokes  as  the  one  related.  —  Tr. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  83 

room  sennons  he  made  use  of  every  passing  occurrence, 
they  sent  him,  from  the  Erlangen  commercial  newspaper, 
an  old  sheet  of  the  seventieth  year,  describing,  in  the  most 
terrible  manner,  the  frightful  famine  that  prevailed  in 
Italy,  especially  in  Naples.  The  date  of  the  newspaper 
was  concealed  with  some  well-stamped  ink  spots.  The 
school-boys  listened  attentively  in  their  places  as  the  rec- 
tor, kindled  by  the  veracious  sheet,  could  scarcely  wait 
for  the  retreat  of  the  chanter,  to  break  out  into  explana- 
tions ;  and  as  with  glowing  colors  (the  Erlangen  news- 
paper-writer had  used  only  water-colors)  he  brought  so 
near  before  the  Schwarzenbach  school-boys  the  hungry 
beggars,  the  shrieks,  the  fainting  and  sobbing  in  the 
streets  of  Naples,  it  is  doubtful  which  was  hottest,  their 
tears  or  their  hunger,  as  they  went  home.  And,  in  fact, 
in  such  cases  of  description,  men  scarcely  believe  that 
there  is  anything  more  to  eat  upon  the  earth. 

Every  one  may  imagine  througli  what  triumphal  arch, 
or  upon  what  bed  of  honor,  in  the  evening,  the  good 
herald  of  hunger  was  conducted  by  the  jest-shooting 
society,  for  his  exciting  and  stirring  news,  —  as  the  said 
shooting  society  saw  and  questioned  the  school  children  : 
—  but  I  cannot  inform  you,  as  it  was  dark  and  late  when 
I  first  learnt  the  contradiction  of  the  newspaper  story. 
Old,  well-meaning  rector,  be  not  unduly  ashamed  or 
angry,  that  birds  of  jest  or  of  prey  descend  upon  thy  dove 
chancel,  —  the  sacred  dove  has  already  with  warm  out- 
spread wings  hovered  and  brooded  upon  our  hearts ;  and 
it  is  the  same  thing  for  a  heart  already  warmed,  whether 
it  be  for  an  old  or  a  near  famine,  that  it  trembles  with 
the  pulses  of  compassion. 


84  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


THE    LORD'S    SUPPER. 

THE  Lord's  Supper,  as  it  is  observed  in  the  country, 
or  among  true  Christians,  is  not  merely  a  Christian 
moral  toga  virilis  ;  not,  as  in  cities,  is  it  assuming  less  the 
garment  of  nuns  than  of  virgins  ;  but  it  is  the  first  and 
highest  spiritual  action,  it  is  becoming  a  citizen  of  the 
holy  city  of  God.  Now  fii'st  is  the  earlier  water-baptism 
a  true  baptism  of  fire,  and  that  first  sacrament  becomes 
through  the  second  full  of  life  and  meaning.  Being  the 
children  of  a  clergyman,  and  frequently  eye  and  ear 
witnesses  of  the  preparation  of  others  for  this  sabbath  of 
the  heart,  we  approached  it  ourselves  with  the  greater 
reverence.  It  arose  yet  higher  in  me  through  the 
delay  of  a  year,  as  my  father  thought  the  legal  age  of 
twelve  years  was  not  completely  attained  until  the  21st 
of  March. 

As  the  rector  held  glowingly  before  our  souls  the  pecu- 
liar conditions  of  this  religious  act,  —  that  the  impenitent, 
partaking  of  the  holy  supper,  like  a  perjured  soul,  instead 
of  enjoying  lieaven  was  swallowing  hell,  and  that  if  a 
Redeemer  and  Holy  One  drew  near  to  an  imjjure  sinner, 
the  power  of  his  presence  to  bless  would  be  changed  to 
poison,  —  streams  of  hot  tears,  which  he  himself  helped  to 
swell,  were  the  least  that  his  heart-eloquent  address  pro- 
duced from  me  and  others.  Glowing  repentance  for  our 
former  lives,  and  warm  resolutions  of  a  blameless  future, 
filled  the  breast  and  wrought  strongly  in  it  when  he 
closed.  How  often  I  went,  before  the  Sunday  evening 
of  confession,  into  the  garret  and  kneeled  that  I  might 
repent  and  confess  !  And  how  sweet  was  it  on  the  day  of 
confession,  to  pray  all  the  people  that  we  loved,  parents 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  85 

and  teachers,  with  stammering  tongue  and  overflowing 
heart,  to  forgive  all  our  faults,  and  thereby  to  purify 
equally  themselves  and  us. 

But,  after  the  evening  of  confession  there  came  a  gen- 
tler, lighter,  purer  heaven  of  peace  into  the  soul ;  an  in- 
expressible and  never  again  to  be  repeated  bliss,  namely, 
that  of  feeling  one's  self  wholly  pure  and  free  from  all  sin, 
and  a  cheerful,  far-extending  peace  established  both  with 
God  and  man.  And  yet  I  looked  from  these  evening 
hours  of  mild,  warm  peace  of  soul  with  ecstasy  to  the 
morning  hours  of  excitement  around  the  altar. 

Blessed  time,  when  men  have  thrown  off  the  foul  past 
and  stand,  pure  and  white,  free  and  fresh  in  the  present, 
and  enter  so  courageously  upon  the  future ! 

Who  would  not  become  again  a  child  ?  For  in  the 
happy  time  of  cliildhood  the  full  peace  of  the  soul  is  so 
easy  to  win,  as  the  circle  of  sacrifices  it  demands  is  so 
much  less,  and  the  sacrifices  more  trifling.  The  weighty, 
intricate,  and  extended  relations  of  older  men,  through 
breaks  and  delays,  leave  the  heavenly  rainbow  of  peace 
imperfect ;  and  not  as  in  the  spring  time  of  life,  when  it 
bends  into  a  completed  arch.  In  the  twelfth  year,  but 
not  in  age,  enthusiasm  can  create   one  wholly  pure. 

The  youth,  like  the  virgin,  finds,  through  all  his  warm 
impulses,  less  in  their  circle  to  conquer,  and  may  gain  the 
highest  purity  of  manners  by  a  nearer  and  easier  path, 
than  the  man  and  the  woman  by  then'  cold  and  selfish 
exertions  through  cares  and  plagues  and  toils.  The  pure 
and  upright  man  is  always  once,  in  the  earliest  time,  a 
diamond  of  the  first  water,  transparent  and  colorless ; 
then  is  he  one  of  the  second  water,  and  many  and  various 
colors  play  in  its  beams,  imtil  finally  he  becomes  as  dark 
as  the  stone  which  grinds  the  colors. 


86  LIFE   OF  JEAN  PAUL. 

Sunday  moruing  the  boys  and  girls,  already  adorned 
for  the  altar,  collected  in  the  court  of  the  parsonage  to 
form  the  festival  jarocession  to  the  church,  amid  the  sound 
of  ringing  bells  and  hymns  sung  by  tliemselves.  All 
these  festive  appearances,  the  wreaths  of  flowers,  and  the 
dark,  perfumed  birches  that  ornamented  the  house  and 
the  temple,  completed  the  powerful  emotion  in  those 
young  souls,  whose  wings  were  already  stretched  on  high. 
During  the  long  sermon  the  fire  kindled  and  increased  in 
the  heart,  and  the  only  contest  was  against  thoughts  that 
were  too  worldly,  or  not  holy  enough  for  the  occasion. 

As  I  at  last  received  the  sacrament  bread  from  my 
father,  and  the  cup  from  the  now  entirely  beloved 
teacher,  the  festival  of  my  heart  increased,  not  through 
the  thought  of  what  they  were  to  me,  —  but  my  heart 
and  soul  and  warmth  were  for  heaven.  It  was  the  bliss 
of  receiving  the  Most  Holy,  that  would  unite  itself  with 
and  purify  my  whole  being,  and  the  bliss  arose  even  to 
the  physical  sense  of  an  electrical  touch  at  the  miracle  of 
the  union. 

I  left  the  altar  with  the  purity  and  the  infinity  of 
heaven  in  my  heart.  But  this  heaven  manifested  itself 
in  me  through  an  unlimited,  gentle  love,  which  no  fault 
could  impair,  which  I  felt  for  every  human  being.  The 
recollection  of  the  happiness  I  felt,  as  I  looked  upon  all 
the  church-goers  with  love  and  took  them  all  into  my 
heart,  have  I  preserved  till  this  hour,  living  and  fresh  in 
my  memory.  The  female  partakers  with  me  at  the  holy 
table  were  to  me,  with  their  bridal  crowns,  like  the  brides 
of  Chi'ist,  not  only  beloved,  but  holy,  and  I  enclosed  them 
all  in  a  love  so  pure  and  wide,  that  Catharine,  as  I  recol- 
lect, was  not  at  that  moment  dearer  to  me  than  all 
the  others. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  87 

The  wliole  earth  remained,  through  the  whole  day,  an 
open  unlimited  festival  of  love,  and  the  whole  woof  and 
web  of  life  seemed  to  move  before  me  like  a  softly  gentle 
-Siolian  or  wind  harp,  through  which  the  breath  of  love 
was  breathed.  If  misanthropy  can  find  an  artificial 
satisfaction  in  an  antipathy  limited  by  no  exceptions, 
of  what  inexpressibly  sweet  satisfaction  is  a  universally 
loving  heart  susceptible,  in  that  beautiful  period  of  life, 
when,  unfettered  by  circumstances  and  uninjured  by  age, 
although  the  field  of  vision  is  narrower  and  the  arm 
shorter,  the  glow  is  so  much  deeper !  And  shall  we  not 
give  ourselves  the  joy  of  dreaming  our  dream  of  that 
overflowing  heaven  which  must  at  last  be  ours,  when  in 
the  higher  and  warmer  focus  of  a  second  world  of  youth, 
loving  with  higher  powers,  embracing  a  larger  spiritual 
kingdom,  the  heart  from  life  to  life  will  open  wider  to 
receive  the  All  ? 

In  susceptible  and  impulsive  men,  everything  remains 
more  easily  at  the  top  than  the  purest  and  best  qualities, 
as  in  quicksilver  all  metals  remain  on  the  surface  except 
gold,  wliich  sinks  to  the  bottom.  Life  will  allow  of  no 
])ure  white,  as  Goethe  says  of  the  sun.  After  a  few  days 
this  precious  consciousness  of  a  state  of  innocence  stole 
away,  and  I  believed  that  I  had  sinned,  because  I  threw 
a  stone  and  wrestled  with  one  of  my  school  companions, 
and  in  neither  case  from  enmity,  but  from  a  blameless 
love  of  play. 

Every  festival  is  followed  by  a  Avorking  day ;  but  we 
go  from  the  one  fresh-clad  to  the  other,  and  the  past  leads 
us  again  to  new  ones.  These  spring  festivals  of  the  heart 
became,  later,  in  the  years  of  youth,  only  calm,  cheerful 
sabbaths,  when  for  the  first  time  the '  ancient  great  stoical 
spirits,  from  Plutarch  and  Epictetus  and  Antoninus,  ap- 


88 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


peared  before  me,  and  took  from  me  all  the  pains  of 
earth,  and  purified  my  heart  from  all  anger.  From 
these  sabbaths  I  hoped,  perhaps,  to  have  brought  to- 
gether a  whole  sabbath  year,  or  to  have  borne  on  with 
me  what  belonged  to  them.* 


*  The  Autobiography  here  abruptly  terminates. 


PART    II. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL 


CHAPTER    I. 

Remarks  xjpon  the  Autobiography.  —  Removal  to  Schwaezen- 
BACH.  —  Self-Education.  —  Loss  of  Childish  Faith. 


PECULIAR  characteristic  of  Jean  Paul  was 
the  transparent  light  in  which  his  childhood 
and  boyhood  were  reflected  in  memory,  even 
to  his  latest  age.  The  peculiarities  of  his 
birthplace  had  less  influence  upon  his  character  and  writ- 
ings than  the  remembrance  of  them,  which  in  after  life  he 
wove  into  a  wide  romantic  picture.  He  left  Wunsiedel 
before  the  time  when  spiritual  consciousness  is  usually 
unfolded  ;  but  his  fancy  created  later,  from  remembrance, 
pictures  that  he  refused  to  disturb  through  the  reality, 
and  tlierefore  he  never  again  would  visit  his  birthplace. 

The  beginning  of  his  self-biograpliy  furnishes  the  means 
for  understanding  how  in  this  he  is  distinguished  from  so 
many  other  geniuses ;  and  before  we  proceed  in  liis  Life, 
we  would  recall  those  peculiarities  which  caused  him  to  be 
regarded  by  the  Germans  as  "  Jean  Paul  der  Einzige"  * 

*  The  only  one.    Unprecedented. 


90  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

He  is  in  this  remarkably  distinguished  from  Goethe,  to 
whom  the  memory  of  his  childhood  presented  only  out- 
ward circumstances.  In  his  "  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit " 
Goethe  recalls  only  the  outward  events  of  his  boyish 
years ;  the  workings  of  the  spirit  were  forgotten,  or  had 
never  been  observed.  Jean  Paul,  on  the  contrary,  traced 
to  his  boyhood  all  his  poetic  feelings,  and  those  acquaint- 
ed with  his  works  will  find,  that  in  his  first  novels  they 
have  only  repetitions  of  his  early  life  under  the  humble 
roof  of  his  parents.  He  goes  back  even  further,  and 
poor  as  he  was,  Providence  gave  him  a  rich  source  of 
poetic  enjojTiient  in  the  time  of  his  birth.  He  came  into 
the  world  on  the  twenty-first  of  March.  He  was  born 
with  the  Spring.  He  was  the  child  of  this  white-robed 
season ;  and  aU  who  are  familiar  with  his  works  will 
remember  that  they  are  an  apotheosis  of  this  deliglitful 
season,  and  that  he  remained  the  poet  of  the  Spring, 
the  chosen  priest  in  her  temple,  to  his  latest  age. 

But  this  circumstance  not  merely  excited  and  nour- 
ished his  poetic  fancy ;  many  of  his  aphorisms,  whether 
uttered  in  jest  or  earnest,  show  that  he  really  believed  in 
the  physical  influence  that  such  a  circumstance  as  the 
equal  division  of  day  and  night,  and  other  equinoctial 
phenomena  would  have  upon  his  birtli.  It  led  him  to 
observe  all  astronomical  and  meteorological  signs  and 
prognostics  that  could  have  any  influence  on  the  com- 
ing seasons.  Sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  all  the  appear- 
ances in  nature,  touched  him  nearly,  and  were  all  dear  to 
him.  The  ever-changing  clouds  upon  the  Fichtelgebirgo 
were  not  watched  merely  with  the  eye  of  a  poet  or  paint- 
er ;  he  was  the  listener  and  interpreter  of  Nature  in  all 
her  relations  with  man,  and  his  acute  and  deep  observa- 
tion and  knowledge  are  expressed  in  many  humorous  and 
many  serious  aphorisms. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  .  91 

Another  circumstance  of  his  infancy,  as  he  says,  breathed 
an  ever-increasing  breath  of  poetry  through  his  hfe.  It 
■was  the  dying  blessing  of  his  ohl  grandfather.  The  by- 
standers said,  "  Let  the  old  Jacob  lay  his  hand  upon  the 
child,  and  bless  him,"  and  he  was  placed  in  the  bed  be- 
side the  dying  man.  The  wondering  and  innocent  babe 
remembered  the  cold,  blessing  hand,  and  in  after  life  the 
man  recalled  it,  "  when  Destiny  led  him  from  dark  into 
brighter  hours." 

An  incident  also  in  his  fourteenth  month  resembles  the 
pale  blossom  of  the  snow-drop  out  of  the  dark  wintry 
eai'th.  A  poor  pupil  of  the  school  carried  him  in  his 
arms,  and  gave  him  milk  to  drink,  and  cherished  in  him 
the  fondest  affection.  This  poor  pupil  remained  ever 
afterwards  a  type  of  one  of  the  characters  in  his  novels. 

Of  not  less  consequence  was  the  memory  of  his  poor 
and  pious  grandfather,  and  the  bench  where  he  kneeled 
to  pray,  and  the  poor  apartment,  still  known  in  Neustadt, 
where  he  contended  with  sharp  poverty,  and  where  the 
harvest  of  the  day  and  the  spiritual  seed  that  were  to  be 
sown  on  the  morrow  were  carefully  collected. 

The  elevated  spiritual  position  of  the  father,  who,  in 
the  consciousness  of  his  own  worth,  bowed  down  with 
servile  reverence  before  no  one,  had  a  still  more  signifi- 
cant poetical  influence  upon  the  son.  The  passionate 
love  of  music,  that  consoled  the  father  under  poverty  and 
solitude,  and  filled  him  with  a  holy  religious  peace,  ex- 
cited also  the  imagination  of  the  son.  But  I  will  men- 
tion only  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  father. 

"  He  came,"  says  the  son,  "  on  Christmas  morning  into 
our  light  and  festive  apartment  from  his  own,  as  it  were 
with  a  mourning  veil.  No  one  had  courage  to  question 
him ;  our  mother  even  was  silent  over  this  annual  mourn- 


92  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

ing.  But  he  entered  into  all  the  joys  of  the  children,  and 
distributed  the  Christkind  gifts  with  more  delight  than 
any  one,  —  with  tears  of  joy  for  us,  but  with  sorrow  over 
the  life  which  most  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  men  had 
to  endure."  This  inward  mourning  of  the  father  is  re- 
peated every  year  by  the  son,  and  holds  a  prominent 
place  in  his  romances,  although  concealed  by  outward 
joyfulness  and  activity.  It  was,  in  both,  the  melancholy 
comparison  of  the  autumn  of  reality  with  the  childlike 
spring  and  bloom  of  the  ideal. 

The  solitude  in  which  Jean  Paul  was  educated,  de- 
prived of  the  village  school,  and  cut  off  from  so  many 
childish  joys,  was  the  fountain  of  that  deep,  continued, 
unappeased  longing  for  fellowship,  that  runs  through  his 
life  and  all  his  works  ;  the  reason  that  he  embraced  every 
man  Avith  equal  love,  for  every  man  seemed  to  him  worthy 
of  equal  love,  and  no  deception  in  his  boyish  yeai'S  had 
laid  the  foundation  for  tlie  conflicting  emotions  of  love 
and  hatred.  His  exclusion  from  the  village  school  and 
the  society  of  his  equals  was  his  severest  boyish  afflic- 
tion ;  therefore  this  village  school  remained  through  his 
whole  life  in  the  rose-light  of  memory.  The  thin,  con- 
sumptive schoolmaster,  whom  he  helped  to  hang  out  the 
cage  to  take  the  rising  goldfinch,  and  spread  the  net  over 
the  cherry-trees,  has  held  his  place,  with  the  halo  of 
memory  around  his  pale  forehead,  in  all  his  works. 

His  domestic  education  had  the  same  influence  upon 
his  predisposition  to  domestic  still  life,  to  "  spiritual  nest- 
making,"  as  upon  the  direction  of  his  genius.  As  a  boy, 
he  considered  the  young  swallows  happy  because  they 
could  sit  so  secretly  in  their  walled  nests ;  and  he  pre- 
served the  same  taste  to  his  old  age.  A  few  years  be- 
fore his  death  he  said,  "  The  good  domestic  simpleton  can 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  93 

sit  completely  contented  in  a  coach,  and,  looking  out  of 
the  side  windows  at  the  villages  and  gardens,  say,  '  A 
pretty,  quiet,  fire-pi'oof  apartment.' " 

The  enlightened  spirit  of  his  father  remained  always 
a  rich  legacy  to  the  son,  and  his  disinterested  human 
love  fell  as  a  mantle  upon  him.  "  AVlien  I  think,"  he 
says,  "  that  I  never  saw  in  my  father  a  trace  of  selfish- 
ness, I  thank  God !  He  stripped  off  his  own  garments 
to  clothe  the  poor ;  the  bread  for  the  bond  peasants  was 
cut  larger  than  he  could  afford ;  and  he  sent  the  school- 
master, spite  of  his  own  poverty,  a  part  of  everything  he 
had."  When  he  went  from  the  little  village  of  Joditz 
to  Schwarzenbach,  he  was  followed  by  the  tears  of  the 
whole  jjai'ish,  who  had  become  for  many  years  as  his  own 
family. 

Yet  one  other  circumstance  I  would  mention  before 
we  follow  the  poet  to  Schwarzenbach ;  what  he  calls  his 
"  first  love."  A  mere  fancy,  awakened  by  the  blue-eyed 
peasant  girl,  who  led  the  cows  to  the  meadows.  He  lived 
long  upon  only  one  pressure  of  the  hand ;  but  it  served 
to  add  the  charm  of  memory  to  the  sound  of  the  cow- 
bell, which,  he  says,  was  to  him  through  Hfe,  "  the  Jcuh- 
reigen*  from  the  high,  distant  Alps  of  childhood,  and 
like  the  sounds  from  the  wind-harp  that  came  from  afar 
off  and  melted  into  more  lovely  distances,  till  he  wept 
from  pleasure  and  regret." 

In  January,  1776,  Paul's  father  removed  to    a.d.  1776, 
Schwarzenbach-on-the-Saale,  to   a   larger   and 
more  respectable   parsonage,  and   a   not   less    agreeable 
parish.      For  some  time,  Paul's  life  was  without  shad- 
ows.     He  says  in  his  journal,  "  no  season  liad  trouble 

*  The  song  of  the  cow-keeper. 


94-  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

for  me ;  I  remember  only  the  bright  side  of  every- 
thing." 

Yet  there  was  hanging  on  his  youth's  horizon  a  dark 
cloud,  which  soon  he  was  obliged  to  observe,  for  already 
in  Schwarzenbach  the  day  began  to  darken.  The  im- 
provement in  his  father's  situation  did  not  contintie  long. 
Paul  allows  us  a  glance  into  tlie  domestic  affairs  of  his 
parents.  He  says,  "  My  father  had  already  incurred  debts 
in  Joditz,  which  were  afterwards  increased  in  consequence 
of  the  imagined,  rather  than  the  real,  impi'ovement  in  his 
fortune,  and  the  time  for  cancelling  them  was  always  too 
short." 

Then  came,  to  torment  his  old  age,  continued  bodily 
pain,  and  inseparable  despondency  of  mind.  This  de- 
spondency spread  over  the  whole  family,  and  Paul  him- 
self did  not  escape.  Although  with  the  same  filial  piety 
he  touches  lightly  on  the  faults  of  his  parents,  he  yet  ex- 
presses the  painful  apprehension  that  he  shall  at  last  be 
obliged  to  love  his  father  less  ;  and,  on  this  account,  he 
somewhere  exhorts  parents  always  to  preserve  the  esteem 
of  their  children,  that  they  may  never  lose  their  affection. 

In  his  journal  he  says,  "  Our  father  now  sat  alone  in 
his  study,  and  could  thmk  only  of  himself,  or  he  rode 
alone  to  the  neighboring  parislies ;  all  our  joyful  pedes- 
trian journeys  to  visit  his  brother  pastors  were  over ;  we 
were  without  teachers  and  without  spiritual  food." 

Paul  was  now  permitted  to  attend  the  common  school ; 
and  while  the  poetic  charm  attached  to  the  friendship  of 
numbers  was  thus  destroyed,  that  heartfelt  thirst  for  one 
with  whom  he  could  sympathize  awoke,  that  followed 
him  through  life.  "  In  the  school,"  he  says,  "  there  was 
not  one  industrious,  or  noble,  or  talented,"  Wolfmann 
"  was  the  only  boy  with  whom  I  could  associate,  and  he 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  95 

was  clistingijished  only  for  beautiful  penmanship."  From 
him  Paul  learned  that  exquisite  handwriting,  like  print, 
in  which  he  wi'ote  his  immense  extract  and  manuscript 
books,  that  gave  him  the  sobnquet  of  the  Dr.  Faustus  of 
the  Parish. 

The  want  of  that  highest  hap|)iness  of  a  sensitive 
youth,  the  sympathy  of  a  friend,  which  thrust  all  expan- 
sion of  feeling  back  upon  his  own  heart,  was  of  deep 
significance  to  the  unfolding  of  his  genius.  In  each  of 
his  elevated  characters,  —  Victor,  Albano,  Gustavus,  — 
he  paints  the  longing  for  friendship,  in  colors  as  true  as  he 
afterwards  describes  the  thirst  for  love  ;  he  is  the  poet 
of  the  one  sentiment,  as  he  is  the  high-priest  of  the  other. 

From  this  time  Paul  dates  the  loss  of  many  childish 
feelings,  and  also  of  his  faith  in  that,  the  most  beautiful 
illusion  to  German  childi-en,  the  real  and  actual  Christ- 
kind  gift  at  Christmas.  Pie  regrets  also  the  decay  of  that 
religious  enthusiasm  that  opened  to  him  the  gate  of 
heaven  at  his  first  communion,  and  laments  that,  after 
his  thirteenth  bii'thday,  he  became  too  indifferent  to  the 
return  of  such  seasons. 

But  from  tliis  time  he  also  dates  the  beginning  of  his 
self-instruction.  He  began  to  understand  the  inefficiency 
of  Ills  old  master,  Werner,  and  took  his  education  into  his 
own  hands.  It  is  a  fatal  period  for  the  influence  of  the 
master,  when  the  boy  discovers  that  he  can  be  no  longer 
his  guide  to  the  temple  of  Science  ;  and  Werner  lost  his 
influence  from  the  moment  Paul  discovered  that  he  used 
a  Gei'man  printed  translation,  when  hearing  his  lessons 
from  the  Hebrew  Bible. 

The  chaplain  V'olkel,*  whose  instructions  have  already 

*  The  reader  will  recollect  Volkcl  was  the  friend  who  proposed 
teaching  Paul  chess  and  philosopliy. 


96  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

been  mentioned  in  liis  self-biography,  and  whom  Paul 
loved,  notwithstanding  his  angry  and  splenetic  temper, 
introduced  him  to  the  study  of  philosophy,  and  led  him 
to  the  belief  that,  even  witliout  the  Bible,  a  God  and  a 
Providence  could  be  proved. 

Another  young  man,  Vogel,  a  friend  of  Volkel,  had 
perhaps  more  influence  upon  the  formation  of  his  charac- 
ter than  any  other  person,  for  he  encouraged  him  in  being 
his  own  self-teacher,  and  the  industrious  pupil  of  his  own 
exertions.  Both  wondered  at  the  boy,  and  admired,  not 
only  his  unlimited  zeal  for  knowledge  and  science,  but 
acknowledged  his  extraordinaiy  talent  and  the  ripeness 
of  his  mind.  By  admitting  him  to  an  equality  of  intel- 
lectual rank  with  persons  so  much  his  seniors  in  years, 
they  strengthened  his  belief  in  his  own  powers.  In 
youth,  great  humility  is  almost  invariably  the  attendant 
of  superior  genius.  The  future  prophet  knows  not  that 
his  face  is  radiant  as  that  of  Moses  when  he  descended 
from  the  mount,  until  it  is  reflected  from  another.  It  is 
necessary  to  make  a  young  mind  believe  in  itself,  before  it 
will  trust  to  its  own  success.  Paul  was  happy  in  the 
encouraging  esteem  of  these  friends,  and  he  wrote  after- 
wards to  Vogel  in  these  terms  :  "  The  praise  that  you 
add,  I  will  not  contradict,  nor  mistrust,  except  that  I  may 
hear  it  again.  Be  you  my  guide  in  the  path  to  truth  and 
happiness.  Lead  the  youth  who  is  so  willing  to  follow. 
Your  applause  will  be  impulse  enougli  to  make  me  indus- 
trious, and  your  censure  will  spur  me  on  to  improvement. 
I  am  much  indebted  to  you  ;  yes,  truly,  I  am  much  in- 
debted to  you.  It  is  my  good  fortune  to  have  known  you. 
Gratitude  and  love  will  never  be  extinguished  in  my 
heart." 

This  friend  possessed,  and  increased  daily,  an  exten- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  97 

sive  library,  that  was  equally  valuable  for  the  number 
and  the  importance  of  the  books  on  many  sciences.  This 
was  a  I'are  thing  in  a  country  parish,  and  an  extraordinary 
happiness  for  Jean  Paul,  or  rather  a  work  of  Providence 
that,  through  these  dead  teachers,  he  should  enjoy  the 
means  of  self-education. 

His  thirst  for  knowledge  constrained  him  to  read  books 
of  every  species,  and  of  the  most  heterogeneous  contents  ; 
hence  the  origin  of  that  wonderful  universality  in  knowl- 
edge, as  the  Germans  call  it,  which,  indeed,  all  richly- 
gifted  minds  seek,  and  of  that  power  of  illustration,  which, 
to  the  readers  of  Jean  Paul,  is  a  perpetual  subject  of 
wonder  and  astonishment. 

To  the  boy  of  fifteen  years  these  books  opened  a  mine 
of  knowledge  and  of  new  ideas  ;  he  could  not  make  them 
all  his  own,  and  the  books  must  be  returned ;  therefore  he 
adopted  his  plan  of  extract-books,  that  afterwards  became 
a  rich  libraiy  by  itself.  Before  his  seventeenth  year  he 
had  made  many  thick  volumes,  each  of  more  than  three 
liundred  quarto  pages. 

In  the  beginning,  his  extracts  were  from  philosophical 
theology ;  then  from  books  of  natural  history,  medicine, 
])oetry,  jurisprudence.  In  his  fifteenth  year,  one  of  his 
extracts  is  entitled,  "  On  the  eternity  of  hell  punish- 
ments." * 

We  may  form  an  idea  of  the  penetrating  judgment  and 
discrimination  with  which  he  read,  from  the  following 
extract  of  a  letter,  in  his  sixteenth  year,  to  his  friend 
Vogel :  — 

"Adding   so  much  benevolence  to  the  old,  makes   it 

*  That  Jean  Paul  was  intended  by  his  father  for  the  study  of 
theology  may  account  for  his  earlier  extracts  being  upon  subjects 
of  theology  and  contrnvprsial  divinity. 


98  LIFE     OF   JEAN    PAUL. 

difficult  to  find  words  to  express  sufficient  gratitude,  and 
yet  more  difficult  to  be  bold  enough  to  ask  for  more. 
Shall  I  venture  to  ask  for  more  books  ?  Your  goodness 
gives  me  courage,  and  I  pray  for  the  third  part  of  Semler's 
Investigatio7i  of  the  Canon,  Goethe  s  works,  the  second 
part  of  Lavater's  Journal,  Helvetius,  and  Lessing'sFrag- 
nieiits.  I  do  not  distrust  your  willingness  to  serve  me, 
when  I  humbly  pray  a  second  time  for  a  book,  from 
which  I  promise  myself  the  most  valuable  views. 

"  The  following  proposition  appears  to  me  at  all  times 
safe :  either  this  book  contains  truth  or  error,  —  if  the 
first,  nothing  should  prevent  me  from  reading  it ;  if  the 
last,  it  will  not  convince  me  if  the  errors  are  too  obvious, 
and  then  it  cannot  injure ;  or  it  does  convince.  But  in 
the  last  circumstance,  what  danger  have  I  to  fear,  if  I 
exchange  a  truth,  of  which  I  am  not  convinced  from  rea- 
son, but  which  is  merely  an  opinion  with  me,  if  I  exchange 
this,  I  say,  for  an  error  tliat  enlightens  me.  Dare  I  once 
more  ask  for  it  ?  Yet  I  would  rather  want  a  hundred 
books,  than  in  the  smallest  degree  make  myself  unworthy 
of  your  benevolence  and  love." 

The  sophistry  of  the  youth  of  sixteen,  and  the  reluc- 
tance of  his  friend  Vogel  to  lend  him  "  Lessing's  Frag- 
ments," will  not  permit  us  to  pass  over  the  change  that 
had  taken  place  in  the  poet  since  the  celebration  of  that 
first  communion,  which  in  his  autobiography  he  describes 
with  such  elevation  of  religious  entliusiasm.  At  this  time 
he  had  exchanged  the  tenderness  of  a  devout  heart  for 
"  the  most  zealous  heterodoxy."  Such  experiences  as 
these  have  often  been  observable  in  minds  of  the  highest 
order ;  with  the  intense  fervor  with  which  the  mysteries 
of  religion  take  hold  of  these  young  hearts,  do  they  pur- 
sue the  painful  doubts  that  afterwords  arise,  till  they  are 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  99 

led  back,  tln'ough  faith  and  love,  to  the  clear  atmosphere 
of  truth. 

Jean  Paul's  Schwarzenbach  life  had  at  this  time  a 
jiowerful  influence  upon  the  direction  of  his  mind  and 
studies.  He  found  no  time  and  no  object  to  satisfy  the 
wants  of  the  heart,  and  no  food  for  the  imagination. 
The  little,  round,  red,  pock-marked  face  of  the  little  girl 
could  scarcely  have  filled  his  fancy,  and  all  his  efforts 
were  directed  to  tlie  cultivation  of  the  reason  and  intel- 
lect. A  perfect  cultivation  consists  in  the  equal  unfold- 
ing of  the  affections,  the  imagination,  and  the  reason  ;  but 
he  was  entering  that  cold  epoch  of  the  understanding, 
when  his  only  desire  was  to  heap  up  knowledge  and  the 
warm  lava-world  of  glowing  feeling  was  for  many  years 
built  over  with  a  heavy  crust  of  earth.  A  powerful 
genius  will  sooner  or  later  recover  the  complete  harmony 
of  its  nature ;  but  that  Kichter  injured  the  faculty  of 
poetic  creation  by  filling  his  mind  with  the  sciences  is 
certain,  from  the  wonderful  self-deception  with  which  he 
expresses  the  doubt  whether  lie  had  not  been  created  for 
a  philosopher  rather  than  a  poet. 

AVe  cannot  follow  our  young  Philosopher  to  another 
residence  without  remarking  the  change  in  his  disposition, 
which  appears  in  full  contrast  with  the  simple  faith  and 
warm  religious  enthusiasm  of  his  first  communion.  Four 
years  only  had  passed,  and  how  far  removed  he  is  from 
tlie  orthodox  "  law  preaching  "  of  his  father  !  Volkel  and 
Vogel,  who  in  Schwarzenbach  were  both  his  teachers, 
must  have  gained  a  very  remarkable  influence  over  the 
mind  of  the  youth  who  made  such  giant  footsteps  in 
knowledge  and  in  spiritual  unfolding.  We  learn  from 
the  extracts  made  from  the  Library  of  Vogel,  with 
wliat  theological  studies  his  mind  was  busied.     The  war 


lOO  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

against  the  old  dogmas  of  theology,  which  was  spreading 
from  the  universities  over  Germany,  perhaps  helped  the 
timid  village  boy  to  assert  his  spiritual  independence.* 


*  A  few  of  the  subjects  of  the  extracts  from  Vogel's  Library  are:  — 
"  Hutcheson's  Livestigation  of  onr  Ideas  of  Beauty  and  Virtue." 
"  Connection  of  Natural  Eeligion  with  the  Christian  Revelation."  "  Of 
the  Existence  of  the  Devil."  "  Of  the  Lifluence  of  tlie  Devil."  "  How 
our  Souls  and  our  Bodies  are  linked  to  each  other."  "  Of  the  Eternity 
of  Hell  Punishments,"  etc. 


CHAPTER    II, 


HoF  Gym>asium.- 


-ScHooL  Anecdotes. —  Death  of  the  Father. 
—  Domestic  Troubles. 


T  Easter,  in  1779,  the  father  of  our  j^j,  j^^g 
Poet  took  an  important  step,  and  ^t- 16. 
placed  him  at  the  Gymnasium,  or  town  school, 
in  the  little  city  of  Hof.  The  examining  rec- 
tor would  have  placed  him  in  the  Jirst  division  of  the 
Primaner,  or  first  class  ;  but  his  father,  to  protect  him 
from  the  ill-will  of  his  companions,  chose  to  have  him 
placed  in  the  middle  division  of  the  first  class.*  It  de- 
pended on  the  talents  and  industry  of  the  pupil  to  bring 
his  place  to  honor,  and  his  companions  were  a  silent  jury, 
who  decided  upon  his  merits.  Paul  was  placed  under 
peculiar  disadvantages  ;  for  to  preserve  his  rank  he  had 
only  two  years  to  stay  in  the  school,  while  the  others 
remained  three  years  without  exception.  So  great  a  dif- 
ference brought  Paul  into  a  false  position,  and  he  soon 
remarked  that  he  stood  alone  among  his  companions.  Pie 
has  left  a  humorous  description  of  his  ajtpearance  when 
he  entered  the  school,  and  the  ridicule  it  excited  in  the 
city  pupils. 

*  To  understand  many  partioulur^  ihat  cccui*  in  tWe  Life,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  a  gymnasium  consists  of  eighty  classes, 
and  that  tlie  Primanjr,  o-  first  chzs'  i^  instru-.tf^d  by  tlio  rector. 


102  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

The  stuff  aiid  the  form  of  his  clothes  were  of  village 
manufacture,  probably  woven  by  his  grandfather,  made 
by  his  mother,  and  negligently  put  on.  With  a  self-pos- 
sessed inward  look,  which  seemed  wholly  unconcerned  at 
outward  circumstances  ;  yet  with  penetrating  glance,  and 
true-hearted,  unconstrained  confidence,  he  met  those  who 
gave  him  only  ridicule  in  return.  Two  instances  are 
mentioned,  which,  although  trifling  in  themselves,  must 
not  be  omitted,  as  they  threw  a  pure  light  on  the  youth 
of  the  poet. 

There  was  one  among  the  boys,  that  took  a  malicious 
pleasure  m  tormenting  him ;  one,  too,  from  whom  Paul, 
in  his  warm-hearted  and  genierous  confidence,  looked  for 
sympathy,  as  he  had  been  a  previous  acquaintance,  and 
belonged  to  a  family  connected  with  his  own.  The 
French  master  was  an  indifferent  and  poorly-paid  in- 
structor, who  had  been  a  tapestry-worker.  He  had  but 
one  book,  which  he  carried  in  his  pocket ;  and  when  he 
laid  this  book  upon  the  long  table,  at  the  head  of  wliich 
he  sat,  only  one,  of  twenty  or  thirty  pupils,  could  look 
over  to  translate  a  passage.  The  mischievous  boy,  al- 
ready mentioned,  told  Paul  that  it  was  an  established 
custom  for  the  pupil,  when  he  first  entered  the  French 
school,  to  kiss  the  hand  of  the  master.  This  seemed  to 
Paul  but  a  suitable  custom,  and  by  no  means  extraordi- 
nary, as  in  his  own  family  it  was  an  established  expression 
of  reverence  from  the  young  to  the  old,  and  Paul,  when- 
ever he  went  to«his  grandfather's,  kissed  his  hand  behind 
his  loom.  When  he  entered  the  French  school,  there- 
fore, he  approached  bashfully  to  the  master,  and,  witli 
honest  faith,  oa.Tieil  the  bi-awny  hand  to  his  lips. 

The  poor  l^'rencnman,  suspecting  some  mystification  or 
insult,  l/rokp,  Ou,t:into  the  most  violent,  anger,  and  Paul 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I03 

barely  escaped  a  blow  from  the  hand  on  which  lie  was 
imprinting  his  loyal  homage.  The  mirth  of  the  class  was 
expressed  in  loud  jubilee  ;  and,  between  them  both,  Paul 
stood  confused,  ashamed,  and  in  the  highest  degree  mor- 
tified. 

In  tliis  instance,  he  was  taken  by  surprise,  and  betrayed 
by  his  loyal  nature ;  but  in  another  attempt  to  impose 
upon  him,  he  asserted  his  rank  as  a  scholar  with  firmness, 
nay,  with  a  dignity  that  compelled  them  ever  after  to 
respect  him. 

Every  week,  two  of  the  pupils  among  the  under  Pri- 
maners  were  called  out  in  succession  to  bring  in  the  bread 
■with  which  they  were  regaled  between  the  lessons  when 
the  teachers  were  exchanged.  As  before  mentioned,  his 
companions  were  determined  not  to  acknowledge  the  rank 
of  Jean  Paul  as  a  first  Primaner,  and  therefore  called 
upon  the  village  boy  to  be  their  purchaser  of  bread.  But 
the  village  boy,  who  would  have  sacrificed  everything  to 
them  in  honest  love,  stood  firm  in  his  rank  as  Primaner. 
When  they  pressed  the  kreutzers  upon  him  for  the  pur- 
chase of  the  bread,  he  let  his  arms  sink  down  with  his 
closed  hands,  and  stood  firmly  in  that  position.  Thus, 
without  complaint  to  the  teacher,  or  a  word  of  contest 
with  his  companions,  he  gained  forever  that  ascendency 
which  a  firm  will  asserts  over  the  wavering  multitude. 

But  if  Paul  was  always  victorious,  he  had  many  dark 
hours  to  conquer,  that  left  a  life-long  impression  upon  his 
mind.  Although  his  companions  unwillingly  acknowl- 
edged liis  first  rank  in  almost  all  branches  of  knowledge, 
it  is  impossible  they  could  have  ai)preciated  the  splendid 
gifts  of  his  mind,  or  the  extent  of  his  already  acquired 
knowledge.  He  overcame  with  his  mighty  power  the 
difliculties  of  his  school  life,  though  he  felt  keenly  the 


I04  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

want,  of  what  he  says  in  his  notes  Heaven  had  denied  to 
his  youth,  —  "  teachers  and  love." 

Between  the  conrector  and  Paul  no  good  understand- 
ing coukl  exist.  However  judicious  may  be  the  arrange- 
ments of  a  school,  and  the  prescribed  method  of  teaching, 
everything  depends  on  the  talent  of  the  instructor  for 
teaching.  This  talent,  like  every  other,  must  be  native 
or  original,  and  united  with  a  cheerful,  unsuspicious,  and 
hopeful  disposition,  that  strives  for  nothing  so  much  as  to 
be  always  young,  that  it  may  enter  into  the  sympathies 
of  youth,  anticipate  and  help  its  efforts  to  rise  into  the 
higher  resrions  of  knowledge  and  wisdom.  This  talent  is 
alone  able  to  excite  pure  scientific  zeal,  and  to  awake  a 
grateful  disposition  in  j^outh. 

Sometimes  this  honorable  aim  is  found  in  men  who 
have  devoted  the  whole  of  life  from  free  choice  to  the  art 
of  teaching ;  but  it  can  scarcely  be  expected  of  those 
scantily-paid  teachers  who  have  stepped  into  tlie  office 
as  a  passing  resting-place,  while  they  are  waiting  upon 
Providence  for  sometliing  better,  and  their  compelled 
and  reluctant  instruction  can  hardly  fail  to  disgust  an 
ingenuous  youth. 

Neither  of  the  instructors  of  Paul  in  the  Hof  school 
possessed  tlie  great  and  generous  art  of  teacliing,  and, 
from  the  conrector's  method  alone,  the  elevating  science 
of  history  became  absolutely  disagreeable  to  Paul. 

One  of  the  bi()grai)hers  of  Jean  Paul  remarks,  tliat,  dur- 
ing his  school  time  in  Hof,  the  sudden  change  in  the  circum- 
stances of  his  family  appears  not  to  have  troubled  him  or 
even  scarcely  to  have  been  considered  by  him,  so  intensely 
was  he  thirsting  for  learning,  tlirown  as  he  was  upon  his 
own  resources  by  tlie  deficiencies  of  the  Hof  school.  In 
the  first  year  of  his  residence  he  relied  upon  the  Library 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  105 

of  Vogel,  and  occupied  himself  in  adding  to  his  extracts 
from  theological  works.  Up  to  his  second  year  he  had 
held  to  the  course  his  father  pi-escribed  for  him,  and  con- 
tinued to  prepare  himself  for  the  pulpit.  The  expanding 
independence  of  liis  mind  was  aided  by  an  incident  which 
gave  notoriety  to  his  heterodox  opinions. 

The  brave  conrector  had  adopted  the  well-meant  but 
doubtful  experiment  of  holding  disputations,  in  which  the 
leading  and  always  victorious  side  was  taken  by  him- 
self. The  parts  of  respondent  and  opponent  were  di- 
vided among  the  Priraaners,  or  first  class.  Unfortu- 
nately a  thesis  was  taken  from  the  infallible  dogmas  of 
the  Church,  with  the  not  unreasonable  expectation  that 
it  would  be  only  so  far  and  so  earnestly  contended  as  to 
re-establish  its  truth  and  the  triumph  of  tlie  conrector. 
Paul  was  chosen  the  opponent,  and  entered  upon  this 
duty  with  the  conviction  that  in  this,  as  in  all  search 
after  truth,  one  should  be,  not  anxious  about  the  issue, 
but  find  out  and  assert  only  what  would  establish  that 
truth.  Paul  had  now  an  opportunity  to  bring  out  the 
treasures  of  heterodox  argument  he  had  drawn  from  the 
Vogel  Library,  and  this  he  did  with  so  much  zeal  as  to 
threaten  danger  to  the  symbolical  church  article,  and  that 
not  so  much  from  the  contestible  subject  of  dispute  as  that 
the  President  was  not  so  well  prepared  mth  arguments, 
as  his  opponent  with  weapons  from  the  heterodox  armory. 
Paul  was  silenced  not  by  argument,  but  by  the  President 
alone  becoming  orthodox  word-leader,  and  the  disputa- 
tion was  ended  without  the  usual  praise  of  the  manner  in 
which  it  had  been  conducted. 

This  school  occurrence  had  for  Jean  Paul  opposing 
consequences.  The  unconsidered  angry  command  to 
silence  with  which  the  President  met  the  argument  of 


Io6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL 

his  opponent,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Primaners  was  a  victory 
on  their  side,  and  gained  for  Paul  an  esteem  which  for- 
bade them  to  follow  hun  in  future  with  ridicule.  On 
the  contrary,  these  heterodox  opinions  wei-e  bitterly  con- 
demned by  the  public  voice  in  Hof.  "  The  free-think- 
ing," remarks  Otto,  "  who  did  not  declare  themselves  or- 
thodox were  called  atheists."  This  fate  had  Paul  in  the 
most  unfortunate  period  of  his  life ;  and  not  he  alone,  but 
all  those  who  were  attached  to  him  in  confidential  friend- 
ship. 

As,  through  the  accident  of  his  birth,  theology  occupied 
much  of  his  attention,  and  his  mind  had  been  so  early 
turned  to  philosophy,  he  followed  the  critical  judgments 
of  the  age,  and  looked  upon  the  heterodoxy  of  the  time 
as  the  companion  of  philosopliy.  History,  in  as  far  as  it 
is  a  collection  of  names  and  dates  and  places,  without 
claiming  the  exertion  of  any  particular  talent,  or  of  any 
faculty  except  that  of  memory,  had  no  charm  for  him ; 
but  as  his  theology  or  his  scepticism  led  him  to  study  the 
history  of  the  Church,  which  introduced  him  to  the  gen- 
eral history  with  which  it  is  inseparably  connected,  his 
aversion  yielded,  and,  some  years  after,  he  wrote  thus  to 
a  friend:  "  History  has  the  highest  value,  in  so  far  as  we, 
by  means  of  it,  as  by  the  aid  of  nature,  can  discover  and 
read  the  Infinite  Spirit,  who  in  nature  and  in  history, 
as  with  letters,  legibly  writes  to  us.  He  who  finds  a 
God  in  the  physical  world,  will  also  find  one  in  the 
moral,  which  is  liistory.  Nature  reveals  to  our  heart 
a  Creator ;  history,  a  Providence." 

"When  Paul  entered  the  Hof  gymnasium,  he  was  taken 
under  the  roof  of  the  honest  cloth-weaver,  where  a  little 
"  cliamber  in  the  wall "  was  prepared  for  him,  and  where 
he  was  soon  furnished  with  a  complete  suit  of  clothes 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  107 

woven  by  his  grandfather.  The  situation  of  the  house, 
and  the  comparative  abundance  of  his  grandfather's 
means  of  living,  had  for  Paul's  mind  a  peculiar  charm ; 
for  we  cannot  forget  how  the  old  errand-woman,  in  his 
childhood,  coming  from  Hof  to  Joditz,  laden  with  his 
grandmother's  presents,  was  anxiously  looked  for,  and 
when  after  any  delay  she  arrived,  all  the  joyful  family 
were  collected  in  the  common  apartment  to  receive  her. 
His  romantic  walks  also  from  Hof,  when  he  returned  se- 
cretly laden  with  presents,  and  the  retlection  of  the  set- 
ting sun  upon  the  Saale  awoke  those  vague  longings  in 
the  boy  that  were  never  appeased,  but  that  could  not  be 
forgotten. 

Soon  after  Paul  entered  the  Hof  school  his  father,  who 
had  long  been  an  invalid,  died,  leaving  to  Paul,  the  eldest 
of  his  children,  the  care  of  his  mother  and  the  payment 
of  his  debts.  With  his  father's  death  began  that  ten  years' 
war  with  poverty  which  the  eldest  son  had  to  carry  on 
alone.  He  had  not  been  many  weeks  under  the  roof  of 
his  grandparents,  when  both,  within  a  short  period  of  each 
other,  paid  the  debt  of  nature.  The  favorite  daughter, 
Paul's  mother,  had  the  misfortune  to  be  invidiously  dis- 
tinguished in  their  will,  and  that  which  might  have  been 
a  blessing,  became,  through  her  character  and  the  envy 
of  the  other  relatives,  a  perpetually  increasing  evil. 

His  mother,  however  tenderly  loved  by  Paul,  appears 
to  have  been  a  weak-minded  and  obstinate  woman.  She 
was,  however,  no  less  the  favorite  of  the  grandmother, 
and  the  presents  she  used  to  send  to  her  under  the  pre- 
tence of  payments  gave  offence  to  another  daughter,  who 
was  less  favored  by  the  grandmother.  This  injudicious 
partiality  was  continued  after  death,  as  already  mentioned, 
by  leaving  to  Paul's  mother  the  house  and  estate  at  Hof. 


Io8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Envy  and  displeasure  were  now  no  longer  silent,  and  a 
lawsuit  was  instituted  by  the  other  relations  to  break  tlie 
will.  Meantime,  as  the  produce  of  the  small  family  es- 
tate was  contested,  the  ground  was  left  uncultivated,  and 
became  every  day  less  and  less  valuable  ;  so  that  Paul, 
when  he  was  scarcely  eighteen,  was  called  upon  to  be 
the  adviser  and  guardian  angel  of  his  mother,  and,  as  far 
as  it  was  in  his  power,  the  protector  of  his  family. 

His  mother,  notwithstanding  the  earnest  dissuasion  of 
Paul,  and  the  advice  of  friends  whose  countenance  and 
support  she  enjoyed  there,  determined  to  leave  Schwar- 
zenbach  and  remove  to  Hof,  where  she  was  drawn  by  the 
possession  of  two  small  houses,  and  her  love  for  the  grave 
of  the  buried  parents.  In  Hof  she  was  Avholly  isolated, 
\\dthout  friends  or  advisers,  as  Paul  had  already  gone  to 
Leipzig.  The  successor  of  the  painstaking  cloth-weaver, 
whose  whole  life  had  been  spent  in  gaining  and  saving, 
could  hardly  escape  the  charge  of  extra^'agance,  if  she 
only  spent,  in  the  most  frugal  manner,  what  had  been 
so  industriously  gained  and  so  thriftily  hoarded.  The 
proverb  was  soon  applied  to  the  poor  widow :  "  The 
sparer  will  have  a  spender."  With  debts  which  she 
could  not  pay  without  incurring  new  ones,  and  in  con- 
test with  her  nearest  relations,  while  the  house  that  she 
inherited  was  fast  going  to  decay  for  the  want  of  repairs, 
which  her  wasted  funds  prevented  her  from  making,  the 
situation  of  Paul's  mother  was  far  from  enviable.  Added 
to  all  this  were  the  reproaches  of  her  neighbors,  who  did 
not  fail  to  ascribe  to  her  own  unthriftiness  and  incapacity 
the  decay  of  such  a  long-honored  family,  so  that  she  soon 
learnt  the  truth  of  the  adage :  "  The  unfortunate  stand 
alone." 

But  not  alone  stood  the  mother  of  Jean  Paul.     Her 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


109 


widowed,  deserted,  and  humiliating  position  seemed  oidy 
to  excite  the  generous  and  self-sacrificing  affection  of 
Paul,  and  to  stimulate  his  filial  piety. 

From  this  glance  into  his  domestic  circumstances  we 
see  how  much  Paul's  youthful  years  were  darkened  and 
oppressed  by  the  cai-es  and  sorrows  of  his  mother,  as  well 
as  by  his  own  sharp  contests  with  actual  want. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Youthful  Fkiendships.  —  Werther  Period.  —  First  Book-mak- 
ing.—  "On  the  Practice  of  Thinking." 


A.D.  1780, 
^t.  17. 


HAVE  anticipated  the  time  of  our 
narrative,  to  give  the  reader  a 
glimpse  into  the  domestic  circumstances  of 
Paul's  family.  We  return  to  the  gymnasium 
at  Hof,  to  mention  the  youthful  friendships  of  one,  of 
whom  it  has  been  said,  "his  writings  Avould  have  created 
friendship  if  it  had  had  no  existence  before."  We  find 
that,  although  his  friendships  ripened  slowly,  they  were 
life-long,  living  in  his  memory  even  after  the  death  of  his 
friends,  and  cherished  as  the  memorials  of  buried  love  to 
the  day  of  his  own  death. 

His  acquaintance  with  John  Bernard  Herman  began 
at  the  gymnasium  in  Hof.  He  was  the  son  of  a  poor  tool- 
maker,  and  his  late  appearance  every  morning  at  the 
school  was  reluctantly  consented  to  by  the  teachers,  be- 
cause he  was  a  mechanic's  apprentice,  and  had  daily  a 
prescribed  quantity  of  sheep's  wool  yarn  to  reel  off  and 
prepare  for  his  younger  sister's  knitting,  before  he  could 
think  of  the  necessary  preparations  for  the  hour  of  school. 
The  generous  nature  of  Paul  led  him  to  be  the  friend  and 
helper  of  one  more  indigent  than  himself,  and  to  offer  him, 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  Ill 

not  only  his  personal  assistance,  but  the  use  of  all  his 
extract  books  and  manuscripts. 

But  Paul  must  have  been  irresistiljly  drawn  to  a  char- 
acter like  Herman,  who  had  the  power  of  rising  above 
the  discouraging  circumstances  of  his  life,  and  of  devoting 
himself  to  elevating  pursuits ;  and  Hei-man's  influence 
upon  the  moral  and  spiritual  being  of  Paul  was  so  much 
greater,  as  his  present  devotion  to  philosophy  and  the 
natural  sciences  coincided  with  the  berit  of  Herman's 
genius.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  scarcely  anything 
remains,  by  which  we  can  know  the  influence  which  so 
remarkable  an  individuality  of  character  as  that  of  Her- 
man's must  have  had  upon  Jean  Paul.  We  know  only 
that  his  was  the  germ  of  a  character  often  introduced  in 
Richter's  later  works. 

The  next,  but  perhaps  the  first  friend  in  confidential 
intercourse,  was  Adam  Lorenzo  von  Oerthel,  the  eldest 
son  of  a  rich  merchant,  who  possessed  many  estates  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Hof.  Topen  was  his  place  of  resi- 
dence, after  he  left  off"  business  ;  but  for  his  son  be  had 
built  a  small  garden-house  in  Hof,  and  devoted  it  to  the 
use  of  the  young  man  while  he  was  at  the  gymnasium. 
This  retreat,  situated  in  the  bend  of  an  arm  of  the  Saale, 
and  surrounded  with  lofty  trees,  looked  upon  rich  meadow- 
gi'ounds,  which  were  terminated  by  a  beautiful  lake. 
Delightful  must  it  have  been  to  the  youthful  friends,  after 
their  school  duties  were  over,  to  wander  here  in  the 
mooidight,  and  with  harpsichord  or  singing,  or  listening 
to  the  music  in  the  neighborhood  (for  all  Germany  is 
musical),  to  have  ])assed  their  confidential  hours.  Had 
Paul  continued  liis  autobiography  to  this  time,  how  would 
he  have  delighted  to  describe  this  place,  and  to  recall  the 
friendship  here  knit  so  closely  with  Oerthel. 


112  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

This  was  the  remarkable  Werther  period,  when  every 
youth  was  infected  with  sentimentality.  Paul  also 
passed  through  this  period,  and  was  only  slightly,  and 
for  a  very  short  time,  touched  with  the  disease.  His 
slight  symptoms  were  more  from  sympathy  with  his 
friend  than  from  a  real  infection.  One  fragment  only 
of  a  sentimental  letter  remains,  which  should  be  liter- 
ally translated. 

"  Ah  !  thy  few  lines  have  caused  me  tears,  —  me,  who 
have  so  few  joys !  and  these  also  I  shall  soon  miss,  for  I 
perhaps  shall  be  absent.  I  shall  imagine  thy  walks  in 
the  garden  at  night,  when  the  full  moon  shines,  and  think 
how  we  formerly  looked  together  over  the  flashing  water ! 
how  we  raised  our  eyes,  filled  with  warm  tears,  to  the 
universal  Father  !  Ah,  the  days  of  childhood  are  passed  ; 
soon,  with  both  of  us,  will  these  of  the  pupil  be  com- 
pleted !  soon  the  whole  of  life ! 

..."  At  this  moment  you  came  in  and  interrupted  me. 
I  read  the  paper  you  gave  me  ;  and  now  I  can  write  no 
longer.  My  tears  flow  !  Yet  something  more,  —  distinct 
thoughts  of  death  occupy  me  now,  —  perhaps  you  also. 
Now  shimmers  the  moon  calmly.  Peace  sinks  into  the 
troubled  soul !  How  awful,  under  the  pale  shimmering 
of  the  moon,  to  imagine  all  the  neighboring  hillocks 
turned  to  graves,  and  there  to  wander,  to  watch ! 

"  How  awful  the  death-stillness  that  surrounds  me,  and 
the  immeasurable  feeling  that  seizes  upon  me  !  How 
elevating  is  it  nightly  to  visit  the  graves  of  sweetly  slum- 
bering friends,  and,  ah  !  the  trusted  heart  that  now  the 
worm  feeds  upon! 

"  Read,  in  Yorick's  journey,  where  he  was  by  the  grave 
of  the  monk  !  But  of  this  description,  speak  not  a  word ! 
You  can  write  at  any  rate." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I13 

One  of  Jean  Paul's  biographers  cannot  understand 
how  he  could  so  soon  rise  from  the  depression  caused 
by  a  work  like  the  "  Sorrows  of  Werther,"  a  book  that 
for  a  time  threw  the  whole  youthful  world  into  a  state  of 
mental  intoxication.  AYlien  Paul  went  to  Hof,  the  book 
had  already  been  published  four  years.  One  Avriting  of 
the  time  says :  "  It  is  but  the  cry  of  that  dim-rooted  pain 
under  which  all  thouglitful  men  were  languishing.  It 
paints  the  misery,  it  passionately  utters  the  complaint, 
and  heart  and  voice  all  over  Europe  loudly  and  at  once 
respond  to  it."  How  could  a  boy  of  twelve  years  old 
enter  into  or  respond  to  the  description  of  what  Carlyle 
calls  "  the  blind  struggles  of  a  soul  in  bondage,  which 
every  one  felt  and  which  drove  Goethe  almost  to  de- 
spair "  ? 

From  this  fragment  we  see  how,  at  this  time,  Jean 
Paul  was  ashamed,  even  before  his  most  intimate  friend, 
of  his  own  emotions,  and  could  only  trust  himself  to 
wiite  of  wliat  interested  him.  He  who  at  a  later  ])e- 
riod  had  the  courage  to  give  to  the  world  the  tenderest, 
most  touching,  and  most  enthusiastic  emotions,  without 
even  the  veil  of  rhyme  or  verse,  and  without  seeking 
to  conceal  himself  behind  the  mask  of  a  fictitious  char- 
acter. 

These  emotions,  that  at  the  same  age  in  Goethe  took 
the  form  of  poetry,  and  were  embodied  in  the  romance  of 
Werther,  were  guarded  with  the  strong  armor  of  science 
in  Jean  Paul.  But  the  deep  fountain  was  in  his  breast, 
gathering  fulness  from  every  little  rill,  and  from  eveiy 
summer  sliower,  till  the  time  was  ripe  for  it  to  be  un- 
sealed, and  to  pour  its  streams  around. 

The  reason  that  Werther,  and  the  sensation  which  the 
publication  of  so  remarkable  a  woi-k  produced,  made  so 


114  t'IFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

little  impression  on  Jean  Paul,  appears  to  have  been  that 
his  mind  at  this  time,  together  with  his  friend  Herman's, 
whose  enthusiasm  for  the  natural  sciences  was  boundless, 
was  turned  to  subjects  of  natural  history  and  philosophy, 
as  the  titles  of  his  Essays  in  his  manuscript  books  show  : 
"  Is  the  world  in  perpetual  motion  ?  "  "  What  is  univer- 
sal in  Physiognomy  ?  "  "  How  are  men,  animals,  plants, 
and  still  smaller  beings,  made  perfect  ?  " 

Although  Jean  Paul  had  not  at  this  time  found  tlie 
true  direction  of  his  genius,  yet  that  spiritual  activity 
was  thoroughly  awakened  that  never  permitted  him 
afterwards  to  be  idle,  but  continued  unwearied  till  his 
death,  when  the  pen  dropped  from  his  hand,  and  an 
unfinished  work  was  borne  on  his  coffin  to  his  grave. 
As  a  child,  he  played  at  book-making ;  he  now  as  a 
school-boy  made  a  book  for  his  own  benefit,  "  On  the 
Practice  of  Thinking." 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  this  book  there  are  none  of 
those  peculiarities  of  expression  which  have  been  called 
affectations,  which  make  his  books  the  despair  of  English 
students.  On  the  contrary,  the  style  is  clear,  concise,  and 
remarkably  simple.  The  limits  of  this  work  will  allow 
but  a  few  short  extracts. 

After  the  title-page  he  writes :  — 

"  These  essays  are  merely  for  myself.  They  are  not 
made  to  teach  others  anything  new.  They  are  not  ends, 
but  means ;  not  new  truths  themselves,  but  means  to  find 
them.  I  shall  often  contradict  myself;  declare  many 
things  truths  here,  and  errors  there.  But  man  is  man, 
and  not  always  the  same." 

The  passage  in  which  Paul  speaks  of  florid  and  orna- 
mented writing  is  remarkable,  as  he  condemns  a  style 
that  was  afterwards  so  singularly  liis  own. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  II5 

"  The  writer  who  produces  many  comparisons,  who 
composes  in  an  ornamented  style,  appears  to  me  to 
have  little  depth ;  at  least,  comparisons  and  figures  can- 
not occur  when  he  thinks  severely.  Whoever  reflects, 
places  the  subject  upon  which  he  thinks  alone  before 
him ;  all  his  views  are  turned  to  that  alone ;  there  is 
room  for  no  ideas  but  such  as  immediately  concern  it. 
On  the  contrary,  when  he  revises  his  work,  he  can  bring 
comparisons  and  figures  to  illustrate  the  subject.  But  is 
that  useful  with  heavy  materials  ? .  .  .  . 

"  Many  think  themselves  to  be  truly  God-fearing,  when 
they  call  tliis  world  a  valley  of  tears.  But  I  believe  they 
would  be  more  so,  if  they  called  it  a  happy  valley.  God 
is  more  pleased  with  those  who  think  everything  right  in 
tlie  world  than  with  those  who  think  nothing  riglit.  "With 
so  many  thousand  joys,  is  it  not  black  ingratitude  to  call 
the  world  a  place  of  sorrow  and  torment  ?  " 

In  tlie  next  extract,  Paul  differs  widely  from  the  prac- 
tice of  the  present  day. 

"  Many  theological  propositions  that  the  enlightened 
consider  false  may  have  their  use,  their  manifold  use, 
with  smaller  and  less  enlightened  people.  They  are 
spurs  to  certain  actions  that  would  not  be  done  without 
them.  To  people  who  believe  them,  because  they  have 
not  power  to  investigate  them,  they  have  their  use ;  but 
to  the  wise  the  benefit  ceases,  for  he  believes  them  not, 
and  cannot,  because  he  is  too  enlightened.  In  the  world, 
truth  and  error  are  as  wisely  distributed  as  storm  and 
sunshine.  TIiou  rejectest  certain  dogmas  that  are  false ; 
but  canst  thou  substitute  truths  in  their  place  that  wiU 
be  as  useful  as  the  errors  ?     Perhaps  an  error  has  more 

useful  results  than  a  truth  in  its  place In   God's 

best  world  is  there  no  error  without  useful  consequences. 


Il6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Wherever  an  error  is,  it  is  not  in  vain.  It  is,  in  its  place, 
better  than  a  truth  !*,... 

"  Leave  the  ignorant  an  error  of  which  he  is  himself 
convinced,  and  bring  no  truth  before  him  whose  proofs  he 
is  incapable  of  understanding.  Observe  especially  what 
promotes  the  piety  of  thy  brother,  and  do  not  mi:^-v»'ith 
the  benefit  of  his  faith  tlie  proofs  of  its  truth,  but  observe 
its  good  or  evil  influences.  The  wise  love  truth,  for  truth 
itself,  as  they  delight  in  reason ;  the  unwise,  as  it  is  of 
use  to  them.  Take  away  the  usefulness  of  truth,  and,  as 
they  are  no  pliilosophers,  they  liave  nothing  left 

"  We  do  not  discover  our  weaknesses  to  those  whom 
we  believe  to  have  none  themselves.  For  this  cause  ge- 
niuses appear  to  form  fi'iendsliips  most  readily  with  those 
who  are  in  understanding  far  beneath  them. 

"  Weak  people  live  more  in  confidential  friendship  with 
each  other  than  geniuses 

"  Words  never  can  express  the  whole  that  we  feel ; 
they  give  but  an  outline.  When  violent  affections  press, 
the  word  is  never  found  that  can  paint  the  circumstances 
of  the  soul.  We  say  only  that  something  is  there,  but 
not  what,  and  how  it  is.  Only  he  whose  soul  is  equally 
tuned  feels  the  same  ;  but  he  feels  not  merely  what  the 
other  expresses,  but  what  he  cannot  express.  He  paints 
out  the  picture  tliat  the  other  has  only  faintly  sketched  in 
outline.  Two  words  are  often  enough  to  place  a  soul  in  a 
situation  that  no  ailded  words  can  paint.  But  the  better 
the  skctcli  is  that  the  full  soul  makes,  so  much  easier  is  it 
for  the  reader  to  complete  the  picture.  Goethe  is  such  a 
sketcher.  He  touches  the  sympathizing  heart  at  every 
point.     Has  not  all  Germany  wept  with  liim  ?  .  .  .  . 

*  The  reader  must  bear  in  miiid  that  this  was  written  by  a  youth 
of  sixteen  years.  * 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  117 

"  Writings  where  the  author  has  thought  please  us  ;  but 
those  please  us  more  that  excite  thought  in  us.  "We 
appropriate  to  ourselves  what  the  author  has  found,  and 
flatter  ourselves  tliat  we  have  already  known  what  he  has 
done  for  us 

'•  Every  one  is  pleased  when  a  writer  is  humble,  when 
a  genius  says  he  is  none.  We  praise  this  apparent  blind- 
ness to  one's  own  merit ;  but,  I  believe,  with  injustice. 
Wherefore  should  a  man  that  feels  his  own  greatness 
not  acknowledge  it  ?  Wherefore  should  a  wise  and  en- 
lightened man  appear  before  the  public  making  a  leg,* 
like  a  dunce  ?  Perhaps  this  is  the  cause :  We  allow 
such  a  one  to  be  a  great  man,  but  we  will  not  learn  it 
from  himself;  our  self-love  is  too  much  offended.  If  a 
man  says  of  himself,  that  he  is  great,  it  is  as  much  as  if 
he  said,  toe  are  little.  But  geniuses,  in  seeking  to  I'ecom- 
mend  themselves,  show  too  much  humiliation.  They  can 
be  just,  but  they  need  not  on  that  account  lower  them- 
selves. Man  is  just,  when  he  does  not  appropriate  to 
liimself  more  merit  than  belongs  to  him,  or  rob  another 
of  what  is  his  due." 

I  have  given  these  extracts,  not  so  much  for  their 
intrinsic  value,  but  as  private  memoranda  of  a  youth  of 
sixteen,  at  the  time  he  was  contending  with  poverty  at 
home  and  with  enemies  at  school. 

The  pa.stor  Vogel,  to  whom  he  had  lent  the  manuscript, 
sent  him  the  day  before  his  departure  for  the  University 
of  Leipzig  a  letter,  that  would  be  injured  without  a  literal 
translation. 

"  Excellent  young  German !  from  whom  I  promise  the 
world  much  in  future  :  My  dear  triend  ;   you   go,  then,  in 

*  Tlie  German  word  is  Bucklingen,  which  means  literally  to  make 
a  leg;. 


it8  life    of    jean    PAUL. 

the  morning,  to  Leipzig  ?  Go,  then,  in  God's  name,  and 
come  not  again  until  you  are  the  —  that  you  must  and 
shall  be.  My  good  wishes  follow  you.  I  know  your 
mind,  I  know  your  heart.  Upon  mine  you  have,  with 
your  goodness,  imi)ressed  the  most  grateful  emotions ;  and 
you  may  yet  acquire  more  desert  with  me  than,  I  at 
present  possess  with  you.  Fulfil  only  my  prophecy  !  and, 
yet  once  more,  farewell !  " 

The  University  of  Leipzig  was  chosen  for  Jean  Paul, 
instead  of  Erlangen  in  his  native  principality,  in  the  mis- 
taken idea  that  a  youth  needed  nothing  in  Leipzig  but  a 
certificate  of  his  poverty,  and  free  tables  and  free  lectures 
would  be  open  to  him. 

The  fame  of  the  professors,  especially  in  theology,  to 
which  Paul  had  been  destined  by  his  parents,  offered 
another  inducement ;  and  the  gi'eat  mercantile  activity  of 
the  place  presented  a  theatre  where  a  young  man  could, 
with  most  facility,  by  the  exertion  of  almost  any  species 
of  talent,  gain  the  means  of  support  for  himself  and  his 
indigent  family. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

richter  enters  the  university  of  leipzig.  —  letters  from 
Leipzig.  —  Change  of  Studies'.  —  Letters  to  his  Mother. 


A.D.  17S1, 
JEt.  18. 


N"  the  19th  of  May  Richter  entered 
the  University  of  Leipzig,  and  was 
on  the  same  day  matriculated.  He  soon  found 
himself  deceived  in  almost  all  his  hopes.  At 
this  time,  without  any  especial  choice  of  his  own,  he  was 
destined  to  the  study  of  theology,  as  it  was  understood  by 
others,  as  well  as  himself,  that  the  preacher's  son  must 
follow  in  his  father's  footsteps  ;  but  before  he  entered  the 
university,  the  philosophical  theology  and  the  heterodox 
critical  direction  of  the  age  had  had  much  influence  upon 
his  mind,  and  the  lectures  he  heard  there  were  only  aids 
and  accessories  to  his  own  self-instruction.  Yet  he  per- 
severingly  attended,  the  first  two  years,  the  philosoi^hical 
lectures  of  Platner,  the  exegetical  and  dogmatical  in- 
structions of  Morus,  and  the  lectures  upon  morals  by  Wie- 
land.  He  listened  with  the  most  anxious  attention,  and 
when  the  proposition  of  the  teacher  excited  an  idea,  or 
awakened  an  objection,  made  a  minute  of  it  in  his  com- 
monplace-book. 

At  this  time,  also,  he  began  to  learn  English  ;  but  his 
only  instruction  in  tliat  language  was  a  two  hours'  public 


120  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

lecture,  once  a  week  ;  the   rest   he   gamed  by  private 
reading. 

But  his  life  at  Leipzig  may  best  be  learnt  by  extracts 
from  his  letters,  premising  that  the  enthusiastic  youth 
found  himself  alone,  without  friends,  in  a  noisy  and  ex- 
pensive city,  where  he  had  gone  with  the  mistaken  jdea 
that  he  could  live  without  money. 

In  his  first  letter  to  the  rector  Werner  he  had  not  been 
wholly  undeceived.* 

"  Leipzig. 

"  The  city  is  beautiful,  if  a  city  can  be  called  so  that 
has  only  great  houses  and  long  streets.  The  splendid 
places  that  you  promised  I  find  not !  Everywhere  an 
eternal  uniformity,  —  no  valleys,  no  hills  ;  it  is  com- 
pletely without  the  charm  that  makes  our  native  region 
so  agreeable.  In  many  tilings  it  is  as  you  promised,  in 
others  not.  I  can  dine  for  eighteen  pfennige.^  Further, 
I  have  been  presented  by  the  rector  Clodius  to  all  the 
colleges. 

"  For  my  beautiful  room  at  the  Three  Roses,  Peter- 
strass,  No.  2  in  the  third  story,  precisely  where  Oerthel 
lives,  (our  chambers  are  together,)  I  have  to  pay  only 
sixteen  rix  dollars ;  J  but  I  must  leave  it  in  the  time  of 
the  fair.  The  students  also  are  as  courteous  and  polite 
as  you  led  me  to  expect.  In  the  following  particulars 
alone  your  information  appears  to  me  incorrect.  The  in- 
formazions  §  are  rare,  or  the  number  of  those  who  inform^ 
is  immensely  great.     In  the  great  houses  they  take  only 

*  In  these  letters,  as  in  all  that  I  have  translated,  I  have  selected 
merely  such  passages  as  will  throw  light  oa  the  biography,  as  they 
are  too  long  for  entire  insertion. 

t  About  twopence  English,  equal  to  thirty-seven  mills. 

I  A  rix  dollar  is  sixty-seven  cents. 

\  Informnzinn  nppenrs  to  be  giving  private  lessons. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I2r 

those  wlio  have  a  recommendation,  and  a  good  one  is 
rare.  From  every  one  I  have  heard  that  not  very  con- 
soling provei'b,  Lipsia  vult  expectari  ;  and  that  expectari 
is  so  undecided,  that  if  one  has  lived  fifty  years  in 
Leijizig,  and  all  this  time  has  received  no  oflice,  they  yet 
preach  to  him  '  to  wait^  they  will  give  it  to  him 

"  Herr  M,  Kirsch  is  with  me  from  Hof ;  his  presence 
has  helped  me  much,  and  he  has  written  me  a  right  good 
testimonium  paupertatis.  I  need  only  produce  this  to 
receive  presents  from  the  colleges.  Tliis  testimony  has 
helped  me  also  with  Professor  Platner,  who  loves  philos- 
ophy so  much." 

Paul  wrote  again  soon  after :  "  My  conjecture  of  the 
expectari  is  not  contradicted,  it  is  rather  strengthened.  I 
have  yet  no  Informazion,  no  free  table,  no  acquaintance 
with  students,  in  truth,  nothing  !  It  is  not  easy  to  obtain 
an  Lnti'oduction  to  the  professors.  The  most  renowned, 
whose  esteem  would  be  most  useful  to  me,  are  oppressed 
with  business,  surrounded  by  a  multitude  of  respectable 
people,  and  by  a  swarm  of  envious  flatterers  ;  so  that 
those  who  are  not  distinguished  by  dress  or  rank  ap- 
proach them  with  difficulty.  If  one  would  speak  to  a 
professor  without  an  especial  invitation,  he  incurs  the 
suspicion  of  vanity.  When  I  think  of  the  multitude  of 
students  who  are  particularly  recommended  to  them,  of 
the  numbers  of  bad  students  who  get  the  ear  of  the  pro- 
fessor, and  prejudice  him  against  the  better,  the  whole 
jihcnomenon  is  explained.  But  do  not  give  up  your 
hoi)es.  I  will  overcome  all  these  difficulties.  I  shall 
receive  some  little  help,  and  at  length  I  shall  not  need  it. 
Here  I  touch  upon  a  riddle,  whose  solution  you  must  wait 
for.  To  my  mother  I  lui\e  only  darkly  hintcnl  it,  ibr  at 
present  it  has  no  solution  ;  only  tliis  will_  1  say  to  you  :  it 
0 


122  LIFE    OF    J P: AN    PAUL. 

is  neither  stipendium,  noi*  table,  nor  informazion,  nor  any- 
thing of  the  kind.  It  relates  to  something  that  you  do 
not  expect,  and  that  I  cannot  speak  of  until  my  anticipa- 
tions are  answered. 

"  But  know  you  what  especially  impels  me  to  industry  ? 
Precisely  what  you  have  said  in  your  letter  —  my  mother. 
I  owe  it  to  her  to  endeavor  to  sweeten  a  part  of  her  life, 
that  otherwise  has  been  so  unfortunate,  and  to  lessen,  by 
my  help  and  sympathy,  the  great  sorrow  she  has  suffered 
through  the  loss  of  my  father.  It  is  also  my  duty  to  do 
something  for  the  happiness  of  my  brothei-s.  Were  it  not 
for  this,  my  studies  would  be  wholly  different.  I  would 
only  work  at  what  pleased  me  ;  for  what  I  felt  strength, 
power,  inclination.  Were  it  not  for  my  mother,  I  would 
never  during  my  whole  life  take  a  public  office.  This 
assertion,  which  perhaps  surprises  you,  did  you  know  the 
whole  circumstances  of  my  situation,  the  disposition  of  my 
mind,  and  the  strange  direction  my  destiny  has  taken, 
would  appear  to  you  reasonable.*  .... 

"  Dr.  Ernesti  was  buried  on  the  15th  of  September. 
He  will  allow  himself  many  hours  in  heaven  with  Cicero. 
His  noble  Roman  head  now  moulders  in  dust.  His  fame 
flutters  over  his  grave,  but  he  hears  it  not.  Truly,  Pope 
is  right :  Fame  is  an  imagined  life  in  the  breath  of  others. 
Thus  the  blow  of  death  scatters  all  the  frippery  of  our 
follies.  The  wish  falls  often  warm  upon  my  heart,  that  I 
may  learn  nothing  here,  that  I  cannot  continue  in  the 
other  world  !  that  I  may  do  nothing  here  but  deeds  that 
will  bear  fruit  in  heaven  !     Enougli 

"  And  you  —  O,  a  thousand  thanks  for  your  excellent 
letter ;  a  thousand  thanks  for  the  love  you  express  to  me ! 
But  I  wish  more  than  merely  to  sat/  my  tlianks  to  you  for 

*  Paul  no  doubt  hints  at  the  scepticism  under  which  his  mind  was 
now  (iti'ng(2;ling. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I23 

all  tliat  I  owe  you  ;  for  the  foundation  of  my  mind  and 
heart.  In  that  for  which  u  })upil  can  never  repay  his 
teacher,  I  can  only  shed  a  tear  of  gratitude,  and  offer  up 
a  wisli  to  the  All  Good !  .  .  .  . 

"  I  write  to  you  very  differently  from  what  I  write  to 
others.  Everywhere  else  I  may  put  on  a  little  mask,  or 
paint,  at  least,  a  little ;  but  with  you  I  do  it  not ;  I  show 
myself  to  you  as  I  am.  You  know  my  fiiults,  and  I  give 
myself  no  trouble  to  conceal  them  ;  therefore  will  you  let 
no  one  see  my  letter,  for  everybody  will  laugh  at  one  who 
is  honest  enough  to  let  his  heart  be  seen  at  the  expense 
of  his  understanding.  There  are  people  who  take  every 
one  for  a  fool,  who  is  not  as  frivolous  as  themselves. 

"  .  .  .  .  Fashion  is  here  a  tyrant  under  whom  all  bow. 
Beaux  cover  the  streets,  and  in  fine  days  they  flutter 
about  like  butterflies.  One  like  the  other,  they  are  all 
puppets,  and  none  has  the  heart  to  be  himself.  These 
gentlemen  flutter  from  toilette  to  toilette,  from  assembly 
to  assembly,  till  they  sleep  from  weariness." 

In  another  letter  to  the  same  friend,  w^e  find  Paul's 
views  upon  the  present  direction  of  his  reading,  and  that 
he  had  already  thouglit  of  relinquishing  the  study  of  the- 
ology as  a  profession. 

"  The  latest  that  I  can  tell  you  of  sacred  dogmas  in 
Leipzig  can  be  very  shortly  said.  Most,  or  indeed  all, 
the  students  incline  towards  heterodoxy.  I  have  heard 
from  a  Professor,  who  is  also  a  preacher  continually  of 
the  mystical  significance  of  the  Bible,  of  its  allegorical 
meaning;  of  its  dependence  upon  doubtful  evidence;  of 
our  ignorance  of  the  Hebrew  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Old  Testament,  etc.  Nevertheless,  the  Professor  dares 
not  deny  a  free  belief.  lie  merely  speaks  of  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  same,  and  leaves  the  decision  to  his  hearers." 


124  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  In  permitting  me  to  answer  with  frankness  and  can- 
dor the  questions  that  your  kindness  has  led  you  to  ask 
respecting  my  present  employments,  my  only  fear  is  that 

I  shall  appear  like  an  egotist I  have  heard,  and  still 

hear,  many  exegetical  lectures  upon  John,  and  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews.  Many  on  Paul's  letters,  and  the  history 
of  the  apostles  by  Morus.  Lectures  on  logic  and  meta- 
physics by  Platncr ;  aesthetics  by  the  same  ;  morals  by 
Wieland ;  upon  geometry  and  trigonometry  by  Gehlar, 
and  the  English  language  by  Hempel.  When  I  tell  you 
what  I  study,  you  will  understand  the  reason  why  I  have 
first  heard  these  college  lectures.  The  languages  are  now 
my  favorite  employment,  merely  because  I  have  acquired 
a  love  for  certain  sciences. 

"  It  is  difficult  for  me  to  say  certain  things  to  you,  that 
I  can  scarcely  say  to  myself,  without  the  appearance  of 
self-pride  and  ostentation ;  but  it  becomes  easier  to  say 
them  when  I  recollect  that  you'  know  me  too  well  to 
suspect  pride  where  it  cannot,  be,  or  to  find  it  where 
it  is  not. 

"  I  have  made  it  a  rule  in  my  studies  not  to  force  upon 
myself  that  wliich  is  decidedly  disagreeable  to  me.  That 
for  which  I  am  unsuited  I  fnid  already  useless.  I  have 
sometimes  deceived  myself  when  I  have  followed  this 
rule  ;  but  I  have  never  repented  falling  into  an  ei-ror 
that  —  * 

" ....  To  study  what  one  does  not  love  ;  that  is,  to 
contend  with  ennui,  weariness,  and  disgust,  for  a  good 
that  we  do  not  desire ;  to  lavish  the  talent,  that  we  feel 
is  ci'cated  for  something  else,  in  vain,  on  a  subject  where 
we  fear  that  we  cannot  succeed,  is  to  withdraw  so  much 
power  from  one  where  we  could  make  progress. 

*  There  is  something  left  unfinished. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  125 

"  But  in  this  way  can  you  earn  your  bread  ?  This  is 
the  miserable  objection  that  is  made  against  it.  I  know 
nothing  in  the  world  by  which  bread  cannot  be  earned ; 
I  will  not  therefore  say  that  he  can  never  succeed,  who 
has  for  the  end  of  his  studies  merely  the  relief  of  his 
pi-essing  necessities. 

"  In  the  one  case  there  will  be  more,  in  the  other  less 
success. 

"  Granted —  and  I  know  not  whether  I  shall  gain  my 
bread  by  that  for  which  I  feel  no  power,  in  which  I  find 
no  pleasure,  and  make  no  progress  ;  or  in  that  in  which 
enjoyment  stimulates,  and  my  talents  help  me. 

"  One  must  live  wholly  for  a  science,  sacrifice  to  it 
every  power,  every  enjoyment,  every  moment,  and  busy 
one's  self  with  the  other  sciences,  only  as  they  are  acces- 
sories to  the  favorite.  If,  through  adverse  outward  cir- 
cumstances, the  insignificant  reward  of  common  inferior 
talent  should  be  lost,  it  will  be  repaid  tenfold  by  the  ex- 
quisite enjoyment  that  springs  from  the  pursuit  of  truth, 
the  charm  that  is  found  in  the  exercise  of  a  favorite  talent, 
and  perhaps  the  honor  that  sooner  or  later  may  be  ac- 
quired.    This  is  my  defence. 

"  Formerly  1  read  only  philosophical  writings  ;  now  I 
read  in  preference  the  witty,  elegant,  imaginative  authors. 
Once  I  did  not  love  the  French  language ;  now  I  read 
French  books  rather  than  German.  The  wit  of  Voltaire, 
the  eloquence  of  Rousseau,  the  ornamented  style  of  Helve- 
tius,  and  the  ingenious  remarks  of  Toussaint,  all  these 
impel  me  to  the  study  of  the  French  language.  I  do  not 
believe  that  I  leani  much  from  them,  but  they  ])lease  me. 
With  the  impression  of  the  finest  passages,  and  the  witty, 
the  remembrance  of  the  art  with  which  they  were  com- 
posed remains  also. 


126  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  I  read  Pope  —  he  delights  me  ;  so  does  Young. 
There  is  undoubtedly  nothing  more  splendid  in  the 
English  language  !  I  learn  it  now  chiefly  to  read  that 
excellent  weekly  paper,  the  Spectator,  of  which  we  have 
in  German  but  a  miserable  translation. 

"  The  eloquence  of  Rousseau  enchants  me.  I  find  elo- 
quence also  in  Cicero  and  Seneca.  I  love  both  these 
now.  above  all  things,  and  prefer  reading  them  to  the  best 
German  authors.  I  love  the  ancients,  and  have  given  up 
many  of  those  foolish  judgments  by  which  I  was  misled, 
through  the  poor  instruction  of  my  Latin  master. 

"  Will  you  allow  me  a  little  digression,  upon  reading 
the  ancient  authors  in  school  ?  What  I  say  may  be  false, 
but  wath  me  it  was  ti-ue.  To  imitate  an  ancient  author, 
to  find  him  beautiful,  to  love  him  and  occupy  one's  self 
with  him,  a  boy  must  have  taste." 

Here  Paul  breaks  off  his  digression  about  the  ancients, 
and  his  account  of  his  own  studies.  We  find  no  more 
lettei-s  upon  the  subject  at  this  time. 

Paul's  coiTcspondeut  objected  to  liis  estimation  of  fame 
in  the  case  of  Ernesti,  and  answered  him  thus  :  — 

"  If  you  believe  that  Ernesti  has  taken  nothing  with 
him  but  his  reputation,  and  that  this  is  only  an  imaginary 
possession,  it  appears  to  me  you  err,  and  would,  like  Pope, 
depreciate  this  imaginary  life  in  the  breath  of  others.  Is 
it,  then,  not  desirable  that  our  memory  should  be  honored, 
that  other  minds,  even  after  the  lapse  of  centuries,  should 
enter  into  union  with  our  own  ?  If  man  looks  upon  Fame 
with  indifference,  he  will  not  wish  to  be  great  himself,  and 
the  world  will  become  poor  in  splendid  deeds." 

Paul,  in  his  next  letter,  sought  to  explain,  rather  than 
to  excuse,  his  assertions  upon  Ernesti's  reputation. 

"  What  you  say  of  Fame  is  just ;  what  I  have  asserted 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  12/ 

thereon  is  not  just.  I  have  never  looked  upon  reputation 
with  indifference,  never  considered  it  an  imaginary  good ; 
for  what  is  more  probable  than  that  in  eternity  we  shall 
enjoy  its  richest  and  most  enduring  fruit  ?  At  the  time 
I  wrote  my  letters  to  you,  I  was,  through  the  recent  death 
of  Ernesti,  tlirough  the  idle  pomp  of  his  funeral,  and  the 
comparison  of  his  former  and  present  circumstances,  ex- 
actly in  the  temper  to  assert  an  erroneous  opinion. 

''  But  perhaps  they  valued  the  depai'ted  Ernesti  more 
than  he  deserved.*  He  spake  Cicero's  Latin,  but  he  had 
not  his  eloquence.  He  had  good  Latin  words,  but  not 
splendid  thoughts  ;  he  was  astonishingly  learned,  with 
moderate  powers  of  understanding.  He  was  more  in- 
debted for  his  reputation  to  his  industry  than  to  his 
genius,  more  to  reflection  than  to  penetration.  He  was 
a  great  philologist,  but  not  a  great  philosopher.  Even 
this  made  him  perhaps  not  half  as  great  as  a  Lessing,  or 
even  as  a  Platner.  But  wholly  to  paint  the  last,  Platner, 
I  must  be  himself,  or  more.  One  must  hear,  or  read  himj 
to  know  how  to  admire  him.  And  this  man,  who  unites 
so  much  sound  philosophy  with  so  much  grace,  so  much 
knowledge  of  mankind  with  such  extensive  leai'ning,  so 
much  knowledge  of  the  ancient  Grecian  with  the  modern 
literature ;  who  is  equally  great  as  a  philosopher,  physi- 
cian, aesthetic,  and  learned  man  ;  and  who  possesses  as 
much  virtue  as  wisdom,  is  as  much  endowed  with  sensi- 
bility as  penetration,  —  even  this  man  is  not  only  the 
envy  of  every  inferior  mind,  but  the  object  of  the  perse- 
cution and  secret  slander  of  every  blockhead. 

"  He  was  once  called  before  the  consistory  at  Dres- 
den, to  defend  himself  against  the  charge  of  Materialism. 
There  is  nothing  of  which  he  is  less  guilty.     No  one  can 

*  Ernesti  was  called  the  German  Cicero. 


128  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

have  read  bis  Aphorisms  without  perceiving  that  he  is  the 
most  enlightened  enemy  of  Materialism 

"  I  have  often  made  the  remark,  that  a  gi-eat  man,  to 
preserve  his  reputation,  must  not  live  long.  New  monu- 
ments of  his  greatness  are  constantly  expected  of  him. 
By  making  his  past  actions  the  heralds  of  his  future,  they 
raise  him  to  an  unattainable  point.  Tbey  turn  always 
their  eyes  forwards,  and  seek  what  he  is  going  to  be,  and 
forget  what  he  has  been,  ceasing  to  admire  when  they 
have  nothing  new  to  admire,  —  he  has  overlived  himself. 
After  his  death,  they  go  back  with  the  great  man  over 
the  whole  course  of  his  path ;  but  before,  they  refuse  to 
give  him  unlimited  praise,  because  they  would  allure  him 
to  greater  actions,  and  not,  through  too  great  appreciation 
of  the  present,  prevent  him  from  striving  for  perfection. 
Thus  it  was  with  the  great  Young,  in  England ;  and  thus 
it  has  been  with  Ernesti  in  Leipzig.  A  great  spirit  may 
only  first  attain  that  existence  which  unites  him  with  the 
whole  of  humanity,  Avhen  he  has  laid  down  the  present." 

From  the  above  extract  relating  to  Platner,  we  cannot 
avoid  the  inference,  that  he  exerted  a  powerful  and  long- 
endui'ing  influence  upon  Richter.  He  says,  many  years 
afterwards,  that  ''  Platner's  manner  in  reading  the  lines 

from  Shakespeare, 

'  We  are  such  stuff 
As  dreams  are  made  of,  and  our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep,' 

created  whole  volumes  within  him."  Platner  thouglit  and 
wrote  in  aphorisms  ;  and,  as  this  bec:une  Jean  Paul's  own 
manner,  we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  pupil 
imitated  the  master,  osj)ecially  as  it  cannot  have  escaped 
the  most  careless  reader  that  Richter's  letters  and  jour- 
nals are  at  this  time  entirely  free  from  his  later  acquired 
peculiarities. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  1 29 

He  appears  to  have  approached  no  nearer  to  Plainer 
than  the  lecture-room.  Paul's  poverty  and  modesty  held 
him  in  obscurity  ;  the  warmest  wish  of  his  heart,  the  deep 
thirst  of  his  soul  to  become  personally  acquainted  with 
intellectual  men,  was  wholly  disappointed  in  Leipzig. 
But  that  he  might  not  fail  in  everything,  he  then  turned 
with  renewed  ardor,  with  more  intense  industry,  upon 
books.  His  studies  had  taken  a  new  direction ;  foreign 
literature,  the  French  as  well  as  the  English,  particu- 
larly Rousseau,  held  captive  the  youth  of  eighteen  years. 
Richter  must  have  found  in  many  of  the  characteristics 
of  Rousseau  a  reflection  of  his  own  nature. 

It  is  remarkal)le  that,  in  the  copious  extracts  he  made 
from  Rousseau,  he  copied  not  the  sentimental  and  impas- 
sioned passages,  but  rather  rules  of  practical  wisdom  and 
directions  for  good  mannere  ;  from  the  Neiv  Heloise,  a  long 
description  of  social  life  in  Paris ;  —  the  reason  is  obvi- 
ous, —  at  this  time  he  longed  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  more  refined  forms  of  social  life  in  Germany.*  He 
could  see  little  of  life  in  Leipzig,  except  what  he  observed 
in  the  streets,  at  the  theatres,  and  in  the  public  gardens. 
So  strong  was  his  desire,  that  he^ays  "  he  stood  hours  at 
the  door  of  the  hotel  of  l^avaria  to  see  an  ambassador 
enter,  that  he  might  be  able  to  describe  one." 

At  this  period,  his  intellectual  activity  alone  was  cher- 
ished, to  the  exclusion  of  the  emotions  of  the  heart,  and 
this  too  united  with  the  coldness  of  a  heterodox  theology ; 
added  to  all  this  was  his  admiration  of  Pope  and  Boileau, 
and  the  study  of  the  French  philosophers.  But  his  heart 
was  still  full  of  the  tenderest  sympathy  for  his  mother,  as 

*  The  inmost  poetic  impulses  of  his  nature  were  kept  in  subjection 
by  his  social  desires,  and  the  impassioned  eloquence  of  Rousseau  sank 
deep,  but  left  no  outward  trace  in  his  mind. 

6*  1 


130  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

his  letters  to  her  at  this  time  will  show.  Speaking  of 
her  lawsuit,  he  writes  to  her,  in  November :  "  A  ^  j,  j^gj 
day  will  perhaps  come  when  your  enemies  will  -^t- 18. 
not  be  as  happy  as  they  now  are,  and  when  you  will 
enjoy  more  rest,  more  satisfaction,  more  joy.  If  you  are 
a  Christian,  (and  this  you  must  be  I)  truly  then  I  cai>oot 
understand  how  things  that  concern  only  this  short  life 
can  make  you  so  uneasy.  Do  you  suffer  from  the  little 
vexations  that  now  afflict  you,  remember  Him  also  by 
whom  the  smallest  good  deed  will  not  be  left  unrewarded, 
who  looks  upon  every  one  of  his  creatures  with  love,  who 
has  formed  for  all  a  heaven,  and  will  give  one  to  all. 
Pray  !  If  you  have  no  friend  to  whom  you  can  complain, 
complain  to  Him  who  is  the  friend  of  all  men  !  Wait 
from  him  the  help  that,  however  long  delayed,  never 
fails.  Remember  that  our  greatest  troubles  can  rob  us 
of  nothing  but  life,  and  that  death  will  give  us  that  sweet 
rest  that  life  has  denied  ;  that  hereafter  our  sorrows  will 
sleep  calmly  till  we  awake  from  slumber  to  that  blessed 
day  when  an  open  heaven  will  receive  the  pious ;  wlien 
friend  shall  meet  friend ;  the  wife  the  husband  ;  the  child 
shall  find  tlie  father  that  he  has  so  long  lost,  and  eternal 
happiness  sliall  stream  through  the  heart  of  the  blessed." 
Paul  writes  again,  on  the  1st  of  December:  "I  daily 
hope  and  expect  to  receive  news  of  what  passes  with  you, 
and  the  help  I  have  so  long  prayed  for  ;  but  I  learn  noth- 
ing from  you.  You  leave  me  between  hope  and  fear.  I 
have  lately  written  to  inform  you  that  I  have  already  been 
trusted  ;  and,  as  I  have  no  longer  any  funds,  I  must  con- 
tinue to  be  trusted.  But  what  can  I  at  last  expect  ?  Be 
so  good  as  to  give  me  some  counsel.  I  must  eat,  —  and 
I  cannot  continue  to  be  trusted  by  the  traiteur.  I  cannot 
freeze,  —  but  where  shall  I  get  wood  without  money  ?    I 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  131 

can  no  longer  take  care  of  my  health,  for  I  have  warm 
food  neither  morning  nor  evening.  It  is  now  a  long  time 
since  I  asked  you  for  twenty  rix-dollars  ;  when  they  come 
I  shall  scarcely  be  able  to  pay  what  I  already  owe.  Do 
you  believe  that  I  would  ask  you  unnecessarily  for  money 
to  spend  extravagantly  ?  Ah  !  I  know  how  indispensable 
it  is  to  you  !  If  you  can  help  me  now,  I  trust  you  will 
not,  with  God's  help,  be  called  upon  to  assist  me  again. 
Perhaps  the  project  I  have  in  my  head  will  enable  me  to 
earn  for  you  and  myself.  But  at  present  I  know  not 
truly  what  I  shall  do  if  you  suffer  me  to  wait  longer." 

He  writes  again  :  "  Now  tell  me  of  yourself.  Are  you 
already  in  Hof,  and  how  are  you  pleased  ?  and  how  stands 
it  with  your  lawsuit  ?  Do  you  win  or  lose  ?  I  expect 
bright  news  from  you.  I  pray  only  that  you  be  not  mel- 
ancholy. Take  care  of  your  health.  Be  steadfast,  and 
bear  the  sorrows  that  you  may  yet  expect  in  greater  num- 
ber, with  increased  resignation.  Keep  my  brother  in- 
dustrious I  " 

After  Paul  had  received  the  money,  wrung  with  so 
much  difficulty  from  his  mother,  he  writes :  "  I  thank  you 
so  much  the  more,  as  it  cost  you  so  much  trouble  to  col- 
lect it.  0,  how  gladly  would  I  refund  this,  and  never 
receive  more  of  that  which  you  need  so  much  yourself!" 

At  this  time  also  his  mother  wrote  to  him,  in  great 
distress,  that  his  idle  brother  had  enlisted  as  a  soldier. 
Paul  answered  :  — 

"  I  am  much  less  troubled  that  my  brother  is  a  soldier 
than  that  you  are  so  anxious  about  it.  Indeed,  it  would 
have  been  better  had  he  remained  at  his  craft.  But  when 
you  tliink  how  unsteady  he  was,  and  that  no  master  could 
keep  him  long,  the  evil  is  not  so  great.  You  err,  when 
you  think  of  the  soldier's  situation  as  anything  contempti- 


132  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

ble.  Are  not  noblemen's,  counts',  and  even  princes'  sons 
soldiei-s  ?  Is  not  the  son  of"  the  old  Frau  Pfarrarinn  in 
Koditz  also  one  ? 

"  Adam  may  be  promoted,  and,  in  any  event,  a  soldier 
is  better  than  a  barber.  Write  to  my  brother  to  conduct 
himself  well,  —  for  the  rest  God  will  care.  Do  not 
trouble  yourself  so  much  about  it,  and,  above  all,  dismiss, 
that  contemptuous  notion  you  have  of  a  soldier's  life. 
The  state  could  not  exist  without  him 

"  I  would  gladly  send  you  some  coffee,  but  my  want 
of  funds  is  as  great  as  yours.  If  only  my  expedient  suc- 
ceeds as  I  hope,  in  four  weeks  it  will  be  decided,*  and 
I  shall  certainly  know  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  earn 
money  by  it  or  not.  Guten  Mutter,  trouble  yourself  not 
so  much ;  for  with  all  your  anxiety  you  cannot  alter  any- 
thing, and  your  cares  Avill  injure  your  health." 

Paul  writes  thus  to  her  on  the  death  of  the  relation 
who  had  contested  the  vAW  and  the  inheritance  of  the 

cloth-maker :  "  Leave  R to  rest  in  peace.     He  is  in 

his  grave,  —  hate  him  then  no  longer  !  Death  ends  all ! 
even  our  enmities.  Has  he  been  unjust  to  you?  he  has 
now  failed  like  other  men." 

His  poor  mother  was  much  dissatisfied  that  Paul  should 
think  of  writing  books,  instead  of  preparing  himself  to 
tread  in  his  father's  footsteps,  and  occupy  the  pulpit  in 
Joditz  or  Ilof.  She  had  flattered  her  imagination  witli 
the  thought  of  sitting  a  devout  hearer  under  his  pulpit, 
and  listening  to  the  pious  eloquence  of  her  gifted  son. 
Paul  wrote  to  her :  —  • 

"  You  ask  what  kind  of  books  I  write  ?  They  are 
neither  theological  nor  juridical,  and  if  I  should  tell  you 
the  titles  it  woukl  signify  nothing.     They  are  satirical  or 

*  This  was  his  intention  of  becoming  an  author. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  133 

droll  books.  Indeed,  I  cannot  but  smile  when  you  make 
me  the  edifyinq;  offei"  to  listen  to  my  preacliing  in  the 
Spital  Klrche  in  Ilof.  Think  you,  then,  it  is  so  much 
honor  to  preach  ?  This  honor,  however,  can  any  poor 
student  receive,  and  it  is  easy  to  make  a  sermon  in  one's 
dreams  ;  but  to  make  a  book  is  ten  times  more  difficult. 
Besides,  you  do  not  know  that  a  poor  student  like  myself 
dare  not  preach  in  Hof  without  gaining  a  permission  from 
Bayreuth,  which  costs  fourteen  gulden.* 

"  •  .  .  .  You  think  that  I  lay  up  my  clothes.  How 
can  I  do  this  when  I  have  no  new  ones  ?  I  have  indeed 
worn-out  garments,  but  no  new  ones.  Now,  dear,  good 
mother,  I  must  speak  of  myself.  If  you  only  knew  how 
unwillingly  I  do  it !  But  can  I  do  otherwise  ?  Yet  I 
will  not  ask  you  for  money  to  pay  my  victualler,  to  whom 
I  owe  twenty-four  dollars,  nor  my  landlord,  to  whom  I 
am  indebted  ten  dollars,  or  even  for  other  debts  that 
amount  to  six  dollars.  I  can  let  these  rest  till  Michael- 
miis,  when  I  shall  undoubtedly  be  able  to  pay  these  and 
other  future  ones.  For  these  great  sums  I  will  ask  no 
help  from  you,  but  for  the  following  you  must  not  deny 
me  your  assistance.  I  must  every  week  pay  the  washer- 
woman, who  does  not  trust.  I  must  drink  some  mUk 
every  morning.  I  must  have  my  boots  soled  by  the 
cobbler,  who  does  not  trust ;  my  torn  cap  must  be  re- 
paired by  the  tailor,  who  does  not  trust ;  and  I  must  give 
something  to  the  maid-servant,  who  of  course  does  not 
trust.  I  know  not,  indeed,  what  I  shall  do  if  you  do  not 
lend  me  a  helping  hand  for  these  things.  Can  you  be- 
lieve that  I  would  plague  you  thus  if  I  could  help  it  ?  I 
need  not,  indeed,  much ;  eight  dollars  of  Saxon  money 
will  satisfy  all,  and  then  I  shall  need  your  help  no  longer. 

*  A  gulden  is  forty  cents. 


134  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Good  mother,  you  must  not  believe  my  project  for  gain- 
ing money  is  good  for  nothing,  because  nothing  is  yet 
decided.  Ah,  no  !  I  trust  even  to  maintain  us  both ;  but 
all  depends  upon  the  beginning." 

The  project  which  Paul,  with  so  much  mysterious  con- 
fidence, imparts  to  his  mother,  was  liis  hope  of  emolu- 
ment from  the  books  he  was  writing ;  and  so  sanguine 
was  he  of  success,  that  he  not  only  hoped  to  pay  all  his 
debts,  but  to  have  the  me^ns  of  making  a  journey  to  Hof. 

"  .  .  .  .  When  I  come  to  Hof  at  Whitsuntide,  I  shall 
not  only  bring  myself,  but  all  my  old  linen,  and  you  may 
send  my  stockings  and  shirts  after  your  recruit.  I  have 
indeed  no  whole  stockings,  only  some  fcAV  that  are 
patched.  But  what  is  that  ?  Do  not  be  angry  that  I 
am  so  merry,  for  I  write  the  whole  day  nothing  but 
amusing  l)ooks.  Yet  more  ;  I  am  not  in  my  old  cham- 
bers, but  in  the  summer-house  of  a  beautiful  garden. 
The  garden  belongs  to  the  same  gentleman  to  whom  my 
former  lodgings  belonged." 

His  poor  motlier,  whose  character  boi'e  a  strong  resem- 
blance to  that  of  Lenette,  in  his  novel  of  "  Siebenkas," 
was  not  at  all  pleased  with  her  son's  writing  all  day  noth- 
ing l)ut  amusing  books,  for  Paul  answers  :  — 

"  You  have  sent  me  a  reprimand,  in  order  that  I  should 
preach  a  penitential  sermon  in  Hof.  Do  you  think,  then, 
that  it  is  so  very  easy  to  write  a  satirical  book  ?  Do  you 
believe  that  the  ministers  in  Hof,  understanding  one  line 
of  my  book,  would  wish  to  silence  it,  and  tliat  the  {)astor 
in  Rehau  does  not  understand  tlie  thing  tliat  he  praises 
so  much  ?  If  I  had  studied  theology  only,  by  what  should 
I  support  myself?  Yet  once  more,  the  permission  to 
preach  costs  fourteen  gulden.  I  do  not  despise  ministers. 
I  have  no  contempt,   and   shall  never   have,  for  linen- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


135 


weavei'S.  Good  mother,  I  trust  yet  to  write  books,  little 
as  I  have  received  for  this,  by  -which  I  shall  gain  three 
hundred  Saxon  dollars.  Besides,  is  it  not  right  that  I 
should  write  facetious  books,  when  you  write  facetious 
letters  ?  Over  the  conclusion  of  your  last  I  could  only 
lausrh." 


CHAPTER    V. 

Extracts  feom  Jouenal.  —  First  Literary  Effort.  —  Green- 
land   Lawsuits. 


HAVE  rather  anticipated  the  course    a.d.  1781, 

of  events,  in  order  to  place  the  ex-      ■^^'  ^^' 

tracts  from  Paul's  letters,  written  while  at  the 

University,  together,  to  enable  the  reader   to 

understand  the  difficulties  he  had  to  encounter,  and  the 

constant  demands  made  upon  his  patience  and  sensibility 

by  his  mother.     I  give  a  few  extracts  from  his  journal,  to 

show  how   he  brought  his  philosophy  to  act  upon  his 

daily  life. 

"  August  11,  1781. 

"  Thou   wouldst   learn   thy   faults   from   thy   friends ! 

Thou  errest  much.     Their  sincerity  goes  not  so  far  as  to 

discover  to  thee  the  undeniable  spots  upon  thy  character. 

Their  sincei'ity  goes  not  so  far  as  to  tell  you  of  faults  that 

you  cannot  excuse  in  yourself.     The  best  means  to  learn 

our  faults  is  to  tell  others  of  theirs.     They  will  be  too 

j)roud  to  be  alone  in  their  defects,  and  will  seek  them  in 

us,  and  reveal  them  to  us.     A  friend  cannot  be  easily 

seen  in  his  true  form.     ATe  see  him  as  in  a  glass,  that 

our  warm  breath  renders  opaque.     An   enemy  is  often 

the  truest  discoverer  of  our  feults.      Our  bosom  friend, 

who  loves  us,  tells  us  of  our  virtues  ;  our  enemy,  who 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  137 

hates  us,  of  our  faults.  Both  often  say  too  much,  but  it 
is  easy  between  these  extremes  to  discover  the  truth.  I 
believe  the  faults  of  many  lively  men  liave  more  merit 
than  the  virtues  of  the  cold  and  unexcitable,  that  cost 
tliem  no  trouble Our  century  is  tolerant  to  opin- 
ions and  intolerant  to  actions.  We  dare  express  every 
opinion  freely,  but  practise  no  virtue  without  the  fear  of 
ridicule.  We  dare  judge  without  knowing  the  opinions 
of  others  to  guide  us,  but  we  dare  not  act  without  seeing 
what  others  do.  We  tolerate  all  sorts  of  free-thinkers, 
but  not  all  sorts  of  saints." 

Every  extract  from  this  journal  would  show  how  much 
Paul's  thoughts  dwelt  upon  the  manner  of  thinking  and 
being,  and  the  outward  relations  and  appearance  of  gifted 
and  great  men.  It  anticipates  that  longing  after  sympa- 
thy and  fellowship  with  the  beautiful  and  good  that  he 
afterwards  desci'ibes  so  faithfully  in  the  life  of  his  Walt. 

"  We  have  had  great  spirits,"  he  says,  "  but  not  great 
men.  All  our  geniuses  raise  themselves  by  their  undnr- 
standing  too  far  above  this  earth.  We  look  sorrowfully 
after  their  flight,  and  regret  that  we  are  only  men.  We 
reverence,  but  we  do  not  love  them.  Rousseau  alone  is 
an  exception.  His  talents  made  him  great  as  an  indi- 
vidual ;  his  heart  allied  him  to  all  humanity.*  We  love 
him  the  more  because  he  discovered  his  faults  to  us,  and 

was  not  ashamed  to  be  our  fellow-creature We 

know  more  of  the  heads  of  celebrated  men  than  of  their 
hearts  ;  they  have  sketched  the  former  in  their  works  ; 
their  heart  is  found  in  their  secret  actions,  and  they 
would  more  certainly  please   if  they  represented  their 

thoughts,  opinions,  and  feelings  with  less  disguise 

There  are  certain  men  that  we  do  not  willingly  thank,  — 

*  Literally,  His  talents  made  him  a  great  man;  his  heart  great  men. 


138  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

those  from  whom  we  expect,  even  receive,  good  with 
reluctance.  We  feel  deeply  humbled  when  another 
makes  use  of  our  misery  as  a  staif  to  raise  himself  to 
higher  honor.  It  is  insupportable  to  be  obliged  to  ac- 
knowledge good  in  wickedness,  and  through  our  gratitude 
encourage  the  vice  of  pride  and  vainglory - 

"  The  learned  man  is  only  useful  to  the  learned ;  the 
wise  man  alone  is  equally  useful  to  the  wise  and  the  sim- 
ple. The  merely  learned  man  has  not  elevated  his  mind 
above  that  of  others  ;  his  judgments  are  not  more  pene- 
trating, his  remarks  not  more  delicate,  nor  his  actions  more 
beautiful  than  those  of  others.  He  merely  uses  other  in- 
struments than  his  own ;  his  hands  are  employed  in  busi- 
ness of  which  the  head  sometimes  takes  little  note.  It 
is  wholly  different  with  the  wise  man.  He  moves  far 
above  the  common  level.  He  observes  everything  from 
a  different  point  of  view.  In  his  employments  there  is 
always  an  aim,  in  his  views  always  freedom,  and  all  with 
him  is  above  tlie  common  level 

"  The  great  man  is  proud,  for  he  would  not  have  at- 
tained the  perfections  he  possesses  if  he  had  not  seen 
their  worth  and  felt  their  value.  But  as  he  has  acquired 
true  advantages,  as  liis  excellences  compel  his  own  ap- 
plause, sometimes  even  his  own  admiration,  he  feels  it 
unnecessary  to  beg  the  miserable  praise  of  fools,  and  to 
attain  greatness  through  previous  humiliation.  He  is  in- 
different to  the  applause  of  others :  his  own  is  sufficient 
for  him  ;  for  this  reason  he  appears  humble  when  lie  is 
entirely  the  opi)osite :  lie  is  only  modest.  He  seeks  his 
own  deserts,  not  in  hearing  it  said  that  he  is  great,  but  in 
proving  it.  He  does  not  boast  of  his  views  in  the  pref- 
ace ;  in  the  book  alone  he  sketches  his  image,  and  if 
he  often  speaks  of  his  weakness  and  imperfection,  it  is 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  139 

not  to  place  those  above  him  who  have  the  perfections 
that  he  wants  ;  but  in  proportion  as  he  is  great,  he  knows 
how  much  he  needs  to  attain  the  greatness  that  he  has 
held  before  him  in  his  ideal  of  perfection." 

It  is  obvious,  from  Paul's  letter  to  the  rector  Werner, 
that  he  was' only  withheld  from  giving  up  theology  as  a 
profession  from  a  sense  of  duty  to  his  mother,  and  the 
fear  that  liis  jjroject  of  becoming  an  author  would  involve 
her  in  deeper  distress.  A  passage  in  his  journal  shows 
the  dread  he  had  of  being  indebted  to  a  patron,  and  no 
doubt  he  felt  as  his  father  did,  that  the  Spirit  only  should 
call  the  laborers  into  the  vineyard  of  the  Church.  He 
says :  "  At  length,  O  God  !  if  I  must  suffer,  grant  only 
this,  that  I  have  not  to  thank  foolish  and  wicked  men 
that  through  our  misfortunes  make  demands  upon  our 
gratitude." 

At  length,  after  long  struggles,  Paul  decided  to  give 
his  thouglits  to  the  public  through  the  press  rather  than 
the  pulpit,  to  write  rather  tlian  to  speak,  and,  his  resolu- 
tion once  taken,  he  never  wavered. 

The  history  of  the  first  creation  of  every  genius  is  very 
interesting.  He  hears  the  whisperings  of  the  Muse,  that 
assure  him  of  his  future  power,  but  he  conceals  them  as 
a  precious  secret,  till  from  his  own  consciousness  he  has 
accumulated  the  materials  of  his  future  fame  ;  but  Rich- 
ter's  first  works  were  not  written  to  lighten  the  laboring 
mind  of  the  riches  that  weighed  upon  it,  as  the  Werther 
of  Goethe  is  said  to  have  been.  Tbe  pressure  came  from 
without ;  the  necessities  of  his  mother  prompted  his  in- 
vention, and  sharp  hunger  impelled  the  industiy  of  his 
pen.  This  pressure  from  without  solves  also  another 
enigma.  It  has  appeared  incomprehensible,  that  an  au- 
thor of  so  much  tenderness,  and  afterwards  so  full   of 


140  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

sentiment,  should  have  begun  with  works  of  Siitire  ;  but 
Paul  enhanced  the  splendid  gifts  of  his  genius  by  a  dis- 
trustful humility.  vSpeaking  of  himself,  he  says  :  "  I  am 
richer  in  a  receiving  than  in  a  creative  imagination,  in 
what  may  be  called  a  negative  poetic  talent,  in  opposition 
to  the  {)Ositive,  which  is  the  power  of  creation.  I  possess 
only  a  lower  order  of  imagination,  —  that  of  being  pene- 
trated and  excited  by  the  creations  of  others.  In  youth 
it  is  dangerous,  but  very  easy  to  mistake  the  one  for  the 
other,  and  imagine  that  a  day  of  pentecost  has  given  us 
the  power  to  speak  with  inspired  tongues." 

Paul  was  a  philosopher  before  he  was  a  poet,  and  his 
French  and  English  studies  determined  the  character  of 
his  first  book.  He  judged,  humbly  and  wisely,  that  his 
mind  was  not  sufficiently  furnished  with  materials,  and 
his  imagination  not  ripe  enough  for  great  creations  in  the 
regions  of  poetry.  Tn  his  French  and  English  reading 
he  had  found  a  multitude  of  Essays,  that,  without  charac- 
ters or  action,  enjoyed  the  highest  celebrity.  They  de- 
manded only  wit,  satire,  irony,  and  poetic  illustration,  and 
he  felt  himself  capable  of  producing  a  book  of  this  spe- 
cies. His  studies  of  late  had  been  almost  wholly  confined 
to  works  of  this  kind ;  and  although  Rousseau  was  his 
favorite,  yet  with  tlie  \\\t  of  Voltaire,  the  satire  of  Pope 
and  Young  in  his  memory,  he  could  play  witli  tlie  pov- 
erty of  his  materials,  and  reproduce  the  same  thought 
almost  without  end.  The  pressure  of  reality,  the  cliill 
and  wet  cold  of  outward  life,  liad  closed,  ami  sequestered 
in  the  bud  all  that  rich  bloom  of  imagination,  that  after- 
wards, when  opened  by  the  sunbeams,  became  so  beauti- 
ful and  luxuriant. 

In  a  letter  to  his  friend  the  pastor  of  Rehau,  to  wliom 
he  sent  the  manuscript  of  his   first  book,  Die  Lob  der 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  14I 

Dummheit,  ("  Eulogy  of  Stupidity,")  he  says  :  "  You  know, 
perhaps,  that  I  am  poor,  but  perhaps  you  do  not  know- 
that  no  one  has  lightened  my  poverty.  If  you  would 
gain  a  patron,  you  must  not  let  it  be  understood  that  you 
need  one,  —  that  is,  if  you  would  be  rich,  you  must  not 
be  poor.  Yet  more,  God  has  denied  me  four  feet,  to 
enable  me  to  look  up  for  the  favorable  glance  of  a  patron, 
and  creep  for  a  few  crumbs  from  his  superfluity.  I  can 
neither  be  a  false  flatterer,  nor  a  fashionable  fool,  nor  win 
friends  by  the  motion  of  my  tongue  and  the  bending  of 

my  back Think  of  all  these  things,  and  you  will 

know  my  situation,  but  you  will  not  know  how  I  am  going 
to  improve  it.  It  came  into  my  head  at  one  time,  I  will 
write  books,  to  be  able  to  purchase  books ;  I  Avill  teach 
the  public,  (pardon  the  false  expression  for  the  sake  of 
the  antithesis,)  to  be  able  to  learn  at  the  University ;  I 
wiU  put  the  horse  behind  the  wagon,  to  get  out  of  this 
wicked  hollow  way.  I  altered  only  the  species  of  my 
studies.  I  read  witty  authors,  —  Seneca,  Ovid,  Pope, 
Young,  Swift,  Voltaire,  and  I  know  not  what.  Eras- 
mus's Encomium  Morice  gave  me  the  notion  of  eulo- 
gizing prosing  stupidity.  I  began,  —  I  improved,  —  I 
found  difliculties  where  I  did  not  expect  them,  and  none 
where  I  expected  them  most ;  and  I  ended  my  book  the 
very  day  I  received  your  letter.  You  will  exclaim, '  Won- 
derful ! '  if  you  do  not  exclaim,  '  Foolish  ! ' 

"  Here  you  have  my  expei-iment,  —  the  experiment  of 
a  man  of  nineteen  years.  A  professor,  whom  the  manu- 
script reached  through  a  third  person,  did  not  wholly 
deny  me  his  applause.  Dare  I  hope  for  yours  ?  Per- 
haps you  will  review  it  in  the  following  manner :  '  The 
author  can  easily  substitute  himself  for  the  book,  —  cer- 
tainly the  Divinity  that  he  praises  inspired  Jiini.' 


142  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  I  will  owe  you  the  utmost  gratitude,  if,  before  I  hand 
the  manuscript  to  the  publisher,  you  will  give  me  some 
information  with  regard  to  its  value,  and  yet  more,  if  you 
will  point  out  its  frequent  fjiults.  But  enoagh  ;  or  1  shall 
write  a  bad  letter  over  a  bad  book." 

Yogel  answered  with  all  the  delight  and  pride  6f  one 
who  had  discovered  and  prophesied  Paul's  future  dis- 
tinction. 

"  I  praise  not  your  folly,  —  but  your  splendid,  wonder- 
ful wisdom  !  Confess !  did  not  Wisdom  herself  appear 
to  you  in  person,  and,  with  her  veil  thrown  back,  reveal 
to  you  her  divine  beauty?  Nevertheless,  I  fear,  if  it  is 
published,  half  the  world  will  quarrel  with  you,  if  not  the 
whole." 

After  waiting  a  year,  and  being  unable  to  find  a  pub- 
lisher for  his  Loh  der  Dummheit,  Paul  wrote  to  the  same 
friend :  — 

"  I  left  Hof  last  year  (at  the  end  of  the  vacation)  full 
of  hope,  followed  by  the  beautiful  and  variegated  dreams 
with  which  a  too-easily  trusting  fantasy  brightened  my 
future  plans.  No  one,  thought  I,  is  happier  than  myself; 
my  Essay  will  bring  me  a  hundred  dollai'S.  With  that  I 
can  live  one  summer,  although  the  book  will  scarcely  live 
so  long.  But  I  can  write  another  for  the  next  fair,  with 
fewer  faults,  that  will  bring  me  more  money.  Ilerr  Pro- 
fessor Seidlltz  will  have  already  disposed  of  this  satirical 
abortion,  and  at  my  next  visit  will  undoubtedly  hand  me 
tlie  author's  reward. 

"But — Ilerr  Professor  Seidlitz  had  not  disposed  of 
my  satire,  and  of  course  could  not  hand  me  the  author's 
reward.  Yet  had  the  gentleman  so  long  and  so  kindly 
patronized  the  book,  by  letting  it  lie  on  his  desk,  that  the 
time  when  it  should  have  been  published,  at  Michaelmas 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  143 

fair,  was  half  over.  Now  I  had  the  book,  but  no  pub- 
lisher. I  read  it  through  to  quiet  my  ill-humor,  and 
thanked  God  that  I  had  found  no  publisher.  '  Lie  there 
in  the  corner,'  I  said,  with  paternal  expression  to  the 
little  Richter,  '  together  with  school  exercises,  for  thou 
art  thyself  no  better,  /will  forget,  for  the  world  would 
certainly  have  forgotten  thee.  Thou  art  too  young  ever 
to  have  been  old,  and  the  milk-beard  upon  thy  chin 
would  never  suffer  me  to  believe  that  thou  wouldst  have 
gray  hair.' 

"  From  this  fit  of  angry  enthusiasm  my  right  hand 
awoke  me,  that  had  accidentally  come  in  contact  with  my 
empty  purse  in  my  l)reeches  pocket.  The  hand  after- 
wards struck  my  stomach,  that  through  its  murmuring 
veto  gave  a  wholly  different  direction  to  my  resolutions. 
In  short,  I  undertook  again  a  wearisome  work,  and  cre- 
ated in  six  months,  observe,  not  in  six  days,  a  bran-new 
satire,  such  as  I  now  send  you.  Perhaps  you  will  think 
I  have  said  nothing  to  excuse  myself ;  permit  me  to  think 
I  have  said  all.  Think  only  of  the  anxiety  with  which 
one  strives  after  a  good,  for  the  want  of  which  the  future 
is  armed  with  greater  terrors,  than  even  embitter  the 
present.  Think  only  of  the  melancholy  discord  between 
laughter  at  strange  follies  and  discouragement  over  one's 
own  future 

While  Paul  was  so  occupied  in  preparing  for  the  press 
his  second  book.  The  Greenland  Laiosuits,  he  neglected 
to  write  to  his  friend  Vogel.  After  answering  his  re- 
proaches, he  says  :  — 

"  I  thank  God  this  steep  mountain  is  passed  now  ;  I 
can  write  again  to  my  friend  with  my  former  freedom. 
Now  I  believe  myself  to  be,  by  a  sweet  deception,  not  in 
my  own,  but  in  your  apartment.     Again  I  believe  that  I 


144  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

press  your  hand,  and  that  you  read  in  my  moist  eyes  the 
remembrance  of  your  past  benevolence,  and  I  read  in 
yours  the  forgetfuhiess  of  my  past  faults.  But  enough 
of  letter-writing,  and  something  of  book-writing. 

"  My  book  has  a  thousand  faults.  It  is  overladen  witli 
comparisons,  as  the  Eulogy  of  Stupidity  was  with  antith- 
esis. I  could  collect  out  of  it  a  regiment  of  six  hundred 
comparisons.  My  satire  commands,  with  its  scourge 
nothing  but  thoughts,  from  which  every  one  may  furnish 
himself  with  a  comparison,  as  in  the  Persian  camp  every 
soldier  liad  a  mistress,  and  the  king  as  many  mistresses  as 
soldiers. 

"  You  think,  perhaps,  I  am  wise  to  blame  myself,  lest 
I  should  be  blamed  by  others,  as  j^risoners,  for  fear  of 
being  hanged,  hang  themselves  in  prison,  and  instead  of 
the  gallows,  use  a  nail,  and  for  a  rope,  a  garter ;  or 
through  previous  criticism  defend  myself  from  every 
other,  as  the  peasant,  to  secure  himself  from  the  thunder- 
bolt, carries  one  that  he  has  picked  up  about  with  him  in 
his  pocket. 

"  ....  I  acknowledge  that  an  excess  of  comparisons 
is  I'eally  a  fault ;  but  can  cold  criticism  subdue  the  charm 
of  rich  intemperance  ?  Does  the  wine-bibber  with  the 
red  nose  know  the  poisonous  effect  of  excess  ?  He  knows 
it  well ;  but  he  cannot  fly  from  it.  Even  so  consists  the 
cold  disapprobation  of  lavish  ornament  with  the  warm 
love  of  the  same.  There  was  a  time  when  truth  charmed 
me  less  than  its  ornament,  the  thought  less  than  the  form 
in  which  it  was  expressed.  I  was  like  the  young  painter 
who  sketches  a  picture  on  the  canvas  from  Nature,  and 
then  gives  it  the  features  of  his  beloved. 

''  But  how  I  radotire  !  I  cannot  even  lay  aside  my 
faults  wliile  I  condemn  them.     A  l)ook  without  beauties 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I45 

is  certainly  a  bad  thing,  but  one  without  faults  is  not 
therefore  good.  Toussaint  asserts  that  such,  even  if  it 
could  exist,  would  possess  only  moderate  merit.  Besides, 
it  is  of  little  consequence  wliether  my  Kindhin  dies,  and 
is  gathered  to  its  brothers,  with  a  quick  apoplexy  or  a 
slow  consumption  ;  that  is,  whether  the  book  is  forgotten, 
with  its  ten  or  its  twenty  faults.  To  prevent  literary 
death,  no  herb  has  yet  grown,  perhaps  not  even  the  laurel, 

"  There  are  always  many  objections  to  the  value  of 
self-criticism.  Who  can  pi'otect  his  ears  from  the  grating 
of  his  file  ?  The  file  shapes,  but  begets  no  beauties.  Not 
the  poet  merely,  but  his  poem  is  born,  not  made.  Jupi- 
ter begets  the  gods,  but  those  who  are  not  immortal  he 
makes ;  these  are  the  work  of  his  hands,  but  IMinerva 
sprung  ready-formed  from  his  head.  Besides,  Genius, 
like  Love,  is  winged,  but  blind  ;  it  feels,  like  the  polypus, 
the  critical  light,  but  sees  it  not.  The  self-critic  lessens 
indeed  the  number  of  faults,  but  also  of  beauties  ;  for  the 
time  that  would  improve  Genius  shortens  that  in  which 
it  Avould  create ;  as  the  one  child  nursed  too  long  robs 
the  embryo  of  nourishment.  Ohejam  satis  est,  will  you 
exclaim  ! 

"  I  send  you  my  book,  not  merely  to  remind  you  of 
your  kindness,  but  to  invite  your  criticism  ;  that  is,  per- 
haps, I  am  so  selfish  as  not  to  requite  your  kindness,  but 
to  hope  for  more.  In  your  criticisms,  or,  which  is  the 
same  time,  in  your  censure,  I  shall  rejoice,  because  they 
are  not  more  painful  than  instructive,  as  Herr  Cantor 
Grossel  in  Schwarzenbach  used  to  teach  his  pupils  their 
letters  witli  the  same  stick  with  which  he  whipped  them. 

"  Decide,  further,  if  the  satire  is  not  too  bitter,  though 
I  believe  satire,  like  beer,  derives  its  value  from  its  bit- 
terness ;  but  the  bitterness  sliould  not  \w.  heightened, 
7  J 


146  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

like  that  of  the  Bohemian  beer,  by  the  mixture  with  the 
hops  of  soot  and  gall.  Decide,  finally,  whether  shimmer- 
ing, modish  bombast  does  not  too  often  take  the  place  of 
genuine  strength  of  imagination,  and  whether  the  whole 
thing  is  not  too  much  like  certain  birds,  —  the  penguin, 
with  shining  feathers,  but  little  naked  wings.  This  is  cer- 
tain, that,  if  the  book  is  a  bad  satire  upon  others,  it  is  the 
best  upon  myself.  But  I  shall  write  a  book  upon  a  book, 
as  Martorelli  over  an  ancient  inkstand  emptied  I  know 
not  how  many  inkstands,  for  he  wrote  two  great  quarto 
volumes  upon  it." 

The  Greenland  Lawsuits  were  a  collection  of  moral, 
satirical  sketches  upon  life,  under  the  titles  of  "  Litera- 
ture," "  Theology,"  "  Family  Pride,"  "  Women  and 
Fops  " ;  of  these  last,  at  this  time,  the  author  could  know 
little. 

Paul  had  at  this  time  gained  sufficient  courage  to 
present  himself  personally,  manuscript  in  hand,  to  the 
Leipzig  booksellers.  It  was  refused  by  all,  and  he  sent 
it  to  the  bookseller  Voss,  in  Berlin.  While  he  was  wait- 
ing the  answer  from  Voss,  he  learnt  well  the  severest 
experience  in  physical  existence,  —  that  of  a  cold  stovo 
and  an  empty  stomach.  But  a  sunbeam  soon  entered  his 
cold  and  desolate  apartment.  On  the  last  day  of  Decem- 
ber, as  he  sat  shivering  in  his  chamber,  a  knock  at  the 
door  brought  liim  the  joyful  intelligence  that  Voss  would 
receive  and  furnish  out  this  his  lii-st  birth  of  love,  so  that 
it  could  appear  with  the  other  enfans  perdus  at  the  Eas- 
ter fair  in  Leipzig.  Through  his  whole  life  Jean  Paul 
looked  back  to  this  moment  with  the  deepest  emotions  of 
gratitude,  —  the  moment  when  he  received  fifteen  louis 
d'ors,*  the  first-fruits  of  his  industry  and  genius. 

•  A  louis  d'or  is  four  dollars  and  fifty-seven  cents. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I47 

Vogel,  to  wliom  he  sent  it,  expressed  the  utmost  de- 
light and  approbation  of  the  book,  and  Paul  answered  :  — 

"  Truth  commands  me  to  admire  your  letter,  but  I 
must  not  listen  to  it  alone,  as  you  praise  my  book  too 
much.  Did  you  forget  that  the  same  perfume  that  stim- 
ulates the  nose  so  agreeably  brings  clouds  and  tears  into 
tlie  eves  ?  Your  judgment  of  my  book  needs  the  other 
half,  the  blame.  You  send  the  silver  only  earlier  than 
the  pill,  and  the  vapor  of  vinegar  that  perfumes  comes 
only  a  little  earlier  than  the  vinegar  that  bites. 

"  You  ask  after  the  plan  of  my  life.  Fate  must  first 
project  it.  My  prospects  furnish  none.  I  swim  upon 
occasion  without  rudder,  but  not  without  sails.  I  am  no 
longer  a  theologian,  and  I  follow  no  science  ex  professo, 
and  all  only  so  far  as  they  promote  my  authorship. 
Philosophy  itself  is  indifferent  to  me,  as  I  doubt  of  all. 
But  my  heart  is  here  so  full,  —  so  full  that  I  am  silent. 
In  future  letters,  and  when  I  have  more  time,  I  will  write 
to  you  of  my  scepticism,  and  of  my  disgust  at  this  foolish 
masquerade  and  harlequinade  that  they  call  life. 

"  My    Sketches   have  brought  me  fifteen  louis  d'ors. 

The  second  part  will  be  stronger  and  better  than   the 

first,  and  will  sell  dearer.     Farewell !    I  know  not  why, 

I  am  so  melancholy  that  I  could  weep  !    Oh  !  we  never 

weep  more  sweetly    than   when  we   know  not  why   we 

weep.     Love  your  friend. 

"  J.  P.  F.  IJ." 

This  last  extract  allows  us  a  glimpse  into  the  real 
feelings  and  dilficulties  of  Paul.  He  was  writing  face- 
tious books,  comic  and  satirical  essays,  while  before  him, 
in  the  future,  stood  the  grim  spectre  of  Want.  He  was 
trying  to  make  others  laugh,  when  he  was  so  melancholy 
that  he  could  himself  w^eep  ;  —  like  that  poor  comedian 


148  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

who  was  dying  with  melancholy,  while  he  was  exhausting 
his  brain  to  amuse  the  world. 

We  see  also  the  origin  of  his  peculiar  manner  of  writ- 
ing. It  was  not  the  spontaneous  pouring  out  of  an  over- 
full mind ;  but  his  antitheses,  and  comparisons,  and  illus- 
trations were  souglit  to  embellish  his  ungrateful  themes  ; 
his  sparkling  crystals  were  distilled  with  much  care  and 
pains,  and  the  poverty  of  his  canvas  thickly  overlaid 
with  jewels  and  ornaments. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


Extreme  Poverty.  —  First  Success.  —  Costume  Controversy. 


A.D.  1782, 
^t.  19. 


jN  the  last  extract  I  gave  from  Ricli 
ter's  letters,  the  reader  is  made  ac 
quainted  with  the  real  state  of  his  finances, 
and  liis  painful  struggles  with  actual  want. 
His  giving  up  all  thoughts  of  a  profession  was  as  much 
a  matter  of  necessity  as  choice.  The  question  was  not 
now,  how  he  should  live,  but  if  he  should  exist  at  all. 
As  Carlyle  expresses  it,  "  he  was  at  hand-grips  w^ith 
actual  want."  But  at  nineteen  years  of  age,  when  he 
wrestled  wath  poverty  single-handed,  there  were  added 
to  these  outward  difficulties  also  moral  pains,  partly  over 
the  melancholy  fate,  partly  over  the  sad  and  reckless  in- 
capacity of  his  brothers  to  take  care  of  themselves.  The 
most  hopeful  threw  himself  from  despair  into  the  Saale, 
and  was  drowned.  Adam,  tlie  barber,  left  his  mother,  as 
we  have  seen,  and  enlisted  for  a  soldier,  and  Richter  had 
to  reconcile  her  to  a  profession  that  at  that  time  was 
looked  on  with  fear  and  aversion.  But  there  lay  within 
him  a  giant's  force,  and  stern,  unbending  resolution.  "■  Pie 
shook  off  the  little  evils  of  poverty  and  contempt  and 
pain,  as  the  lion  shakes  the  dew-drops  from  his  mane." 

With  the  fifteen  louis  d'ors,  after  paying  his  debts,  he 
was  enabled  to  change  his  lodprinss  to  a  summer-house  in 


150  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  garden  of  his  landlord,  consisting,  indeed,  of  only  one 
small  room,  but  where  Paul  could  indulge  the  passion  he 
carried  through  life  of  studying  in  the  open  air.  This 
little  circumstance  led  to  a  curious  episode,  which  his 
biographer  calls  his  "  costume  martyrdom."  Although 
it  continued  through  many  years,  it  began  about  this 
time. 

Partly  from  necessity,  partly  from  fancy,  Paul  had 
adopted  a  peculiar  style  of  dress,  entirely  at  variance 
with  the  fashion  of  the  day.     He  writes  to  his  mother:  — 

"  As  I  can  make  my  vests  last  no  longer,  I  have  de- 
termined to  do  without ;  and  if  you  send  me  some  over- 
shirts,  I  can  dispense  with  these  vests.  They  must  be 
made  with  open  collars  a  la  Hamlet;  but  this  nobody 
will  understand  ;  in  short,  —  the  breast  must  be  open,  so 
that  the  bare  throat  may  be  seen.  My  hair  also  I  have 
had  cut.  (It  was  the  day  of  cues  and  powder.)  It  is 
pronounced  by  my  friends  more  becoming,  and  it  spares 
me  the  expense  of  the  hair-dresser.  I  have  still  some 
locks  a  little  curled." 

As  already  mentioned,  he  had  hired  a  small  room  that 
opened  into  the  Kornerchen  garden,  with  the  privilege 
also  of  walking  in  the  garden  at  all  times,  night  or  day. 
The  magister  *  Grafenheim  had  also  hired  the  prin- 
cipal building  in  this  garden,  which  brought  him  into 
near  neighborhood  with  Paul.  Paul,  with  good  reason, 
supposed  that  he  had  an  equal  right  to  enjoy  all  the 
walks  in  the  garden,  and  felt  no  disposition  to  imprison 
himself  in  his  little  apartment.  But  the  magister  was 
not  of  this  opinion  ;  he  chose  to  lun'c  the  garden  wholly 
to  himself,  and  complained  to  tlie  proprietor,  requesting 
him  to  restrain  Paul's  walks,  and,  moreover,  complaining 

*  blaster  of  Arts,  a  title  of  dignity  at  the  University. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  IJI 

of  the  oiFence  against  fashion  and  propriety  in  the  bare 
throat  of  his  plebeian  neighbor. 

Paul  defended  himself  with  meek  condescension  in  a 
letter  to  the  magister,  in  which  he  tells  him,  "  that  he 
will  no  longer  approach  so  near  to  his  dwelling  as  he  did 
yesterday ;  that  he  will  visit  the  garden  only  at  morning 
and  evening,  so  that  he  shall  rarely  be  offended  with  a 
dress  that  his  convenience,  health,  and  poverty  oblige  him 
to  wear.  Moreover,  he  would,  when  walking  in  the  gar- 
den, cover  his  thi-oat,  and  that  he  should  not  be  annoyed 
by  other  students,  as  he  had  only  one  friend,  who  visited 
him,  and  not  the  garden." 

The  magister  was  not  satisfied  with  these  four  condi- 
tions, and  soon  complained  that  they  had  bi^en  infringed, 
and  that  Paul  had  actually  passed  a  certain  statue  that 
stood  without  his  limits. 

At  this  Paul's  patience  vanished.  He  wrote  again, 
"  that  he  revoked  what  he  had  said  before ;  that  the 
statue  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  promises;  that  he 
had  hired  the  privilege  of  walking  in  the  garden  and 
had  paid  for  it ;  and  that  he  would  walk  whenever  and 
wherever  he  pleased,  without  fear  of  Herr  Korner,  or 
the  magister."  And  he  closed  with  these  remarkable 
words  :  "  You  despise  my  mean  name ;  nevertheless,  take 
note  of  it,  for  you  will  not  have  done  the  latter  long,  be- 
fore the  former  will  not  be  in  your  power  to  do."  But, 
at  the  same  time,  with  a  generous  spirit  of  accommodation, 
Paul  made  this  proposal :  "  1  will  freely  consent  to  leave 
the  garden,  where  the  satisfaction  of  one  disturbs  the  en- 
joyment of  another,  on  condition  that  I  pay  for  an  apart- 
ment that  I  had  hoped  to  enjoy  for  half  a  year  the  rent  of 
three  months  only.  It  depends  on  you,  therefore,  whether 
you  will  constrain   Herr   Korner  to  accept  these  condi- 


152  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL, 

tions."  They  were  accepted  ;  and  Paul  evacuated  the 
garden,  and  returned  to  his  old  room  at  the  Three  Roses, 
Peterstrass. 

Paul's  martyrdom  was  not  at  an  end.  He  went  down 
to  Hof,  to  visit  his  mother,  where  his  fomily  were  not  in 
great  favor,  and  his  appearance  made  the  most  astonish- 
ing impression,  not  only  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  little 
city,  but  upon  his  own  family.  So  important,  indeed,  was 
the  matter  considered,  that  bis  firm  friend,  the  pastor 
Vogel,  remonstrated  most  earnestly  in  letters,  that  are 
yet  preserved,  against  this  singularity.  Paul  seems  to 
have  been  partly  sensible  that  it  was  affectation,  and, 
mild-tempered  as  he  was,  lie  would  not  yield  in  this  par- 
ticular, but  \*ent  about  a  la  Hamlet  for  seven  years. 

Some  extracts  from  letters  of  this  period  will  shoAV  the 
course  of  this  costume  controversy. 

Vogel  wrote  to  him  :  "  You  value  only  the  inward,  not 
the  outward,  —  the  kernel,  not  tlie  husk.  But,  with  your 
permission,  is  not  the  lohole  composed  of  the  foi-m  and 
the  matter  ?  Is  one  disfigured,  so  is  the  other.  You 
condemn  probably  the  philosophy  of  Diogenes,  that  sep- 
arated its  hero  so  much  from  other  men  that  it  placed 
him  in  a  tub.  How  can  you  justify  yourself,  if  your 
philosophy  serves  you  in  the  same  way  ?  No,  my  friend, 
you  must  open  your  eyes  and  see  that  you  are  not  the 
only  son  of  earth,  but,  like  the  ants  in  their  ant-hUls,  you 
live  in  tlie  tumult  of  life 

"  Would  you  not  hold  that  painter  unwise  who  sliould 
offend  in  costume,  —  paint  his  Romans  in  sleeves  and 
curled  hair ;  the  person  of  a  man  with  petticoat  and  open 
bosom?  Oh!  that  is  not  to  be  endured!  Yet,  a  couple 
of  proverbs,  —  'Swim  not  against  the  tide';  'Among 
wolves,  learn  to  howl.'     *  Vulgar  proverbs  ! '  will  you  say. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  153 

Yes,  but  elevated  wisdom.  The  true  philosopliy  is,  not 
for  others  to  adapt  themselves  to  us,  but  for  us  to  adapt 
ourselves  to  others.  Whoever  forgets  this  groat  axiom, 
advances  few  steps  without  stumbling.  But  what  do  you 
seek  ?  In  the  midst  of  Germany  to  become  a  Briton  ? 
Do  you  not  in  tliis  way  say,  '  Put  on  your  spectacles,  ye 
little  people,  and  behold !  see  that  you  cannot  be  what  I 
am.'  Ah,  to  speak  thus  your  modesty  forbids  !  Avoid 
everything  that  in  the  smallest  degree  lessens  your  value 
among  your  contemporaries." 

To  this  gentle  remonstrance  Paul  answered  :  "  I  answer 
your  letter  willingly,  for  the  sake  of  its  argument,  which 
your  good  heart,  rather  tliau  your  good  head,  has  dictated. 
Your  proverbs  are  not  reasons,  or  if  they  are,  they  prove 
too  much,  —  for  if  I  would  swim  with  the  stream,  this 
stream  would  often  make  shipAvreck  of  my  virtue ;  the 
kingdom  of  vice  is  as  great  and  extensive  as  the  kingdom 
of  fashion  ;  and  if  I  must  howl  with  the  wolves,  why 
should  I  not  rob  with  them  ?  '  If  the  sliell  is  injured, 
the  kernel  suffers  also,'  you  say.  But  wherefore  ?  Let 
us  decide  what  does  injure  the  shell.  You  consider  that 
an  evil  to  Diogenes  that  others  hold  an  advantage.  Did 
the  so-called  injury  rob  this  great  man  of  his  philosophy, 
his  good  heart,  his  wit,  his  virtue  ?  It  robbed  him  not, 
—  but  it  gave  him  peace,  independence  of  outward  judg- 
ments, freedom  from  tormenting  wants,  and  the  incapacity 
of  being  wounded ;  and  with  this  consciousness  he  could 
venture  upon  the  punishment  of  every  vice.  Great  man  ! 
Thank  God  that  thou  wert  born  in  a  country  where  they 
wondered  at  thy  wisdom,  instead  of,  as  at  present,  punish- 
ing it.  Fools  would  commit  the  only  wise  man  to  a  mad- 
house ;  but,  like  Socrates,  he  would  ennoble  his  prison. 

" '  The  painter  would  be  ridiculous  in  offending  against 
7* 


154  LIFE   OF  JEAN  PAUL. 

costume.'  This  is  true,  but  more  witty  than  applicable  to 
me.  I  need  only  say,  that  the  painter  of  costume  is  not 
the  greatest  in  his  art ;  he  is  great  whose  pencil  creates, 
not  after  the  tailor,  but  after  God ;  paints  bodies,  not 
dresses.  The  painter's  creations  can  only  please  through 
form,  which  is  the  shell ;  and  am  I  designed  for  that  ?  Is 
it  my  destination,  with  my  organized  ugliness,  to  please  ? 
Scarcely,  —  if  I  would. 

"  But  enough.  I  hold  the  constant  regai'd  that  we  pay 
in  all  our  actions  to  the  judgments  of  others  as  the  poison 
of  our  peace,  our  reason,  and  our  virtue.  Upon  this 
slave's  chain  have  I  long  filed,  but  I  scarcely  hope  ever 
to  break  it." 

This  humorous  controversy  was  kept  up  for  some 
months  on  paper,  as  games  of  chess  are  played  in  Hol- 
land, without  either  party  saying  check  to  the  king.  At 
last  Paul  consented,  as  he  called  it,  to  inJndl  his  person, 
and  put  an  end  to  this  tragi-comical  affair,  by  the  follow- 
ing circular,  addressed  to  his  friends. 

"ADVERTISEMENT. 

"  The  undersigned  begs  to  give  notice,  that  whereas 
cropt  hair  has  as  many  enemies  as  red  hair,  and  said 
enemies  of  the  hair  are  likewise  enemies  of  the  person 
it  grows  upon ;  whereas,  further,  such  a  fashion  is  in  no 
respect  Christian,  since  otherwise  Christian  persons  would 
adopt  it ;  and  whereas  especially,  the  undersigned  has  suf- 
fered no  less  from  liis  hair  than  Absalom  did  from  his, 
though  on  contrary  grounds ;  and  whereas  it  has  been 
notified  to  him  that  the  public  proposed  to  send  him  into 
hi?  grave,  since  the  hair  grows  thei*e  without  scissors  :  he 
hereby  gives  notice  that  he  will  not  willingly  consent  to 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


155 


such  extremities.  He  would,  therefore,  inform  the  noble, 
learned,  and  discerning  ])ublic  in  general,  that  the  under- 
signed proposes  on  Sunday  next  to  appear  in  the  various 
important  streets  of  Hof  with  a  false,  short  cue  ;  and  with 
this  cue,  as  with  a  magnet  or  magic  rod,  to  possess  him- 
self forcibly  of  the  affection  of  all  and  sundry,  be  they 

who  they  may. 

"J.  P.  F.  E." 


CHAPTER    VII 


Love  Passage.  —  Second  Volume  of  Greenland  Lawsuits 

Pressing  Poverty.  —  Flight  from  Leipzig.  —  Domestic  Cir- 
cumstances IN  HoF.  —  Book  of  Devotion. 


A.D.  17S3, 
JEt.  20. 


X  the  summer  of  1783,  after  the 
puljlication  of  the  first  part  of  the 
"  Greenland  Lawsuits,"  Paul  went  to  Ilof  to 
pass  the  vacation  with  his  mother,  and  there 
occurred  a  little  love  adventure,  which  must  not  be  omit- 
ted in  an  account  of  his  life. 

Instead  of  a  universal  acknowledgment  of  the  value  of 
his  book,  it  received  only  partial  admiration,  and  from 
o?ie  especially,  who  appears  under  the  name  of  Sophia. 
This  she  expressed  with  so  much  enthusiasm,  that  Paul's 
susceptible  heart  was  instantly  warmed,  although,  instead 
of  propitiating  his  beloved,  as  formerly,  with  sugared  al- 
monds and  drawings  of  kings,  he  sent  her  volumes  of  rare 
extracts,  which  he  had  made  out  of  the  latest  literature. 
Some  love  billets  were  exchanged,  and  it  went  even  so 
far  that  the  young  lady  presented  Paul  witli  a  ring ;  but 
he  was  too  jjoor  to  offer  her  anything  in  return  but  his 
empty  silhouette. 

Upon  his  return  to  Leipzig  he  waited  nearly  a  month, 
and  when  he  wrote  the  letter  was  fdled  witli  trivial  ex- 
cuses for  not  writing  sooner.     The  young  lady  remon- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  157 

strated,  and  demanded  back  her  ring.  Paul  answered : 
"  Every  sort  of  dissimulation  is  hateful  to  me,  therefore 
it  shall  be  Avhully  removed  from  the  answer  to  your  late 
letter.  The  letter  that  punislies  my  negligence  pleases 
me  better  than  the  one  that  pardons  it,  and  you  appear 
to  love  me  better  when  you  are  angry  with  me  than  when 
you  are  reconciled.  The  letter  contains  the  silhouette  of 
your  head,  but  not  that  of  your  heart.  The  light  of  the 
one  has  taken  the  place  of  the  warmth  of  the  other,  and 
I  hear  your  reason  speak  in  it,  but  not  your  love.  Shall 
the  warmth  of  your  love  depart  with  the  warmth  of  sum- 
mer ?  Tills  suspicion  your  next  letter  will  destroy  or 
confirm.  The  ring  that  I  sent  back  yesterday,  and  the 
want  of  which  you  so  sadly  regret,  you  need  not  send  me 
again.  Not  the  ring,  but  the  form  it  gilded  was  valuable 
to  me,  and  such  an  image,  yes,  a  better  likeness,  you  can 
always  present  me." 

This  letter  remained  unanswered  ;  and  Paul,  whose 
fancy  represented  the  good  he  was  losing  in  more  charm- 
ing colors,  or  who  perhaps  felt  that  he  had  not  met  the 
young  lady's  love  with  the  warmth  it  deserved,  wrote 
again :  — 

"  The  curtain  is  torn  upon  which  so  many  hopes  were 
painted,  and  our  love  will  fade  with  the  flowers  that  put 
forth  their  short  bloom  at  the  same  period.  This,  and 
nothing  else,  can  I  understand  from  your  neglect  to  an- 
swer my  last  letter 

"  We  will  not  part  from  each  other  with  reproaches.  I 
will  leave  you  as  we  leave  the  grave  that  we  love,  and 
must  ever  love  !  You  can  take  your  love  from  me,  but 
not  your  image  ;  that  will  endure  longer  in  my  heart  than 
mine  in  yours.  You  cannot  deprive  me  of  the  happiness 
I  have  enjoyed,  for  the  recollection  of  it  will  daily  be  re- 


158  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

peated.     May  he  who  has  taken  my  place,  oi'  who  will 

take  it,  reward  you  for  the  happiness  that  you  have  given 

me,  and  may  you  reward  him  by  loving  him  better  than 

you  have  him  who  now  is  nothing  more  to  you  than, 

"  Yours,  &c. 

"J.  P.  F.  R.\ 

Thus  philosophically,  after  asking  for  the  return  of  his 
letters,  and  telling  her  she  could  use  his  silkoiietie  for 
papillottes,  ended  the  love  passage  between  Richter  and 
the  maiden  of  Hof,  called  Sophia.  How  different  from 
his  later  loves  !  His  letters  to  her  are  stiff,  cold,  and 
poor  in  thought  compared  with  letters  to  his  male  friends; 
and  when  we  recall  that  childish  love  for  the  little  peasant 
girl,  whose  first  stolen  kiss  seemed  ever  to  glow  in  his 
memory,  and  when  Ave  think  of  the  glowing,  but  pure  light 
in  which  he  could  paint  a  higher  and  more  spiritual  love, 
so  that  he  kindled  the  hearts  of  the  German  youth,  and 
made  himself  the  idol  of  the  women  of  Germany,  we  can- 
not avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  attachment  was  chiefly 
on  the  side  of  the  lady,  and  that  Jean  Paul  suffered  very 
little  from  the  disappointment  of  his  hopes. 

We  can  easily  understand  why  the  mother  of  Sophia 
—  for  she  was  so  fortunate  as  to  have  a  mother  —  should 
cut  short  the  course  of  a  love  that  promised  only  starva- 
tion to  botli  parties.  But  that  the  young  lady  still  cher- 
ished a  lingering  attachment  for  Paul  appears  from  her 
refusal  to  give  up  the  book  of  extracts,  that  he  had  only 
intended  to  lend  her.  In  December  he  writes  to  his 
mother :  — 

"  In  Hof  is  a  blue  bound  writing-book  of  mine,  with 
extracts  from  the  latest  authors.  I  gave  it  to  Sophia  to 
read.  Pray  forget  not  to  demand  it  back."  His  mother 
did  not  succeed.     The  book  was  retained,  and  Paul  wrote 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  159 

again  :  "  Sly  book  in  ITof  is  only  one  copied  out  of  other 
authors.  I  will  ask  no  more  for  it.  I  present  it  to 
Mademoiselle  with  all  my  heart,  and  she  knows  Avell  I 
would  also  present  myself" 

Paul  returned  to  Leipzig  after  the  summer  vacation, 
with  the  most  extraordinary  hopes  as  to  his  literary  suc- 
cess, and  consequently  his  introduction  into  the  elevated 
circles  of  Leipzig  society.  The  absence  of  a  court,  and 
of  an  arrogant  aristocracy,  together  with  the  independence 
of  the  commercial  class,  and  the  great  number  of  young 
literary  aspirants,  produced  more  equality  of  condition  in 
this  than  in  many  of  the  German  cities.  Successful  talent, 
or  distinction  in  any  art,  was  then  in  Leipzig  a  passport 
to  the  most  distinguished  society  ;  and  music,  the  passion 
of  the  Germans,  was  the  medium  of  union  in  all  classes. 
The  circumstance,  also,  that  the  public  offices  were  gen- 
erally held  by  learned  men  created  a  rare  esteem  for 
literature  in  a  mercantile  city  like  Leipzig. 

Paul  had  seen  only  the  outside  of  concerts,  balls,  the 
theatre ;  he  had  marked  the  charming  exterior  of  the 
beautiful  women  of  the  upper  class,  and  his  fancy  painted 
all  these  objects  in  ever-changing  and  ever-glowing  colors. 
The  touching  naivete  with  which  he  has  described  the 
longing  for  the  enjoyment  of  these  scenes,  in  one  of  hi8 
novels,  does  not  exceed  the  vividness  of  his  own  desires 
to  be  admitted  to  them.* 

He  had  sold  the  second  volume  of  his  "  Greenland  Law- 
suits" to  Voss,  at  the  Michaelmas  fair,  for  one  hundred 
and  twenty-six  dollars,  and  he  was  at  this  time  zealously 
employed  upon  the  third. 

The  singular  infatuation  of  Richter,  in  imagining  his 
genius  adapted  to  satire,  was  not  yet  enlightened,  al- 

*  In  the  character  of  Walt,  in  tlie  Flegeljakrt. 


l6o  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

though  this  second  volume  suffered  more  than  the  first 
from  poverty  of  materials.  Strange  that  Richter  should 
believe,  that,  with  the  limited  knowledge  of  mankind  that 
a  secluded  village  at  the  foot  of  the*  Fichtelgebirge  and 
a  student's  garret  could  yield  him,  without  characters, 
without  action  of  any  kind,  he  could  write  satires-that 
would  interest  the  reading  public.  Even  Montaigne 
could  not  carry  out  his  satires  without  living  examples, 
and  dramatic  conversations  with  himself;  and  Carlyle,  in 
our  own  day,  has  introduced  a  shadowy  dramatis  personce, 
in  order  to  give  a  local  habitation  in  the  memory  to  his 
beautiful  satire  of  tlie  Tailor. 

Paul,  as  usual,  sent  his  second  volume  to  his  friend 
Vogel,  assuring  him  "  that,  as  it  was  smaller  and  dearer 
than  the  other,  it  must  be  better."  Not  so  thouglit 
Vogel,  and  he  had  the  honesty  and  candor  to  answer: 
"  Your  second  part  will  be  read  only  by  critics,  and 
will  not  be  relished  or  understood  by  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Whatever  gives  us  trouble,  that  we  are  obliged 
to  see  through  a  telescope,  or  to  dig  out  of  the  depths  of 
the  earth,  fails  to  please.  It  may  be  heavy  gold ;  but 
the  tinkling  money,  that  gives  us  our  inheritance  in  the 
easiest  way,  is  more  desirable."  And,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, that  the  dearest  lovers  of  Jean  Paul,  of  the 
present  day,  who  read  these  satires  as  the  first  spiritual 
embryo  of  their  favorite,  find  them  heavy  and  uninter- 
esting. 

For  his  third  volume,  which  was  now  finished,  Paul 
could  find  neither  editor  nor  puljlislier.  He  presented  it 
to  booksellers'  fairs  and  literai-y  collectors  in  vain.  Ne- 
cessity at  length  suggested  the  only  alternative,  to  send 
it,  with  letters  stating  his  necessities,  to  distinguished  and 
learned  men.     But  he  had    not   the   irood   fortune   that 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  l6l 

Crabbe  has  so  well  described,  when  he  presented  his 
poems  at  the  door  of  the  magnanimous  Burke,  and 
walked  the  whole  night  in  anxious  uncertainty  as  to  their 
reception.  Paul  received  no  answers  to  his  letters,  or 
was  repulsed,  unheard,  from  every  door.  He  wrote  short 
essays  for  periodicals  and  magazines ;  but  there  was  a 
singular  virtue  in  the  readers  of  that  day  in  Germany, 
and  Jean  Paul  could  create  no  taste  for  satire. 

While  his  fond  expectations  and  unripe  hopes  were 
fast  falling  to  the  ground,  the  money  he  had  received  for 
the  second  volume  was  consuming  also,  and  the  poverty 
of  the  youth  was  again  as  pressing  as  ever.  In  this 
necessity  he  had  no  other  alternative  but  to  return  to 
Hof.  Under  the  same  roof  with  his  mother,  their  united 
housekeeping  would  be  less  burdensome  to  Paul  than 
their  separate  expenditure.  He  had  long  since  given  up 
his  evening  meal ;  and  his  supper  of  dried  prunes  he  ate 
walking  in  the  Kuchen  garden. 

For  about  half  a  year  Paul  had  been  in  debt  to  his 
victualler  for  his  midday  frugal  meal,  and  she  gave  him 
not  a  moment's  peace,  but  seasoned  his  small  pittance 
with  the  daily  demand,  "  Now,  Herr  Richter,  has  not 
your  golden  ship  arrived  ? "  At  last,  in  despair,  he  re- 
solved to  fly.  His  friend  Ocrthel  bore  his  packed  trunk 
to  the  spot  where  the  post-wagon  would  pass  ;  and  Paul, 
who  imagined  tliat,  on  account  of  his  peculiar  dress,  and 
especially  the  manner  of  wearing  his  hair,  he  was  known 
to  the  whole  city,  purchased,  with  liis  last  groschen, 
a  false  cue,  which  he  attached  carefully  under  his  hat 
behind,  and  withdrew  liiraself  from  the  city,  where  he 
had  been  nearly  lost,  as,  to  use  his  own  expression,  Mun- 
chausen drew  himself  from  the  swamp. 

In  the  manner  in  which  Paul  left  Leipzig,  he  created 

K 


l6l  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  only  real  adventure  of  his  youth,  and  the  simplicity 
of  his  proceedings  shows  the  remarkable  naivete  of  his 
character.  He  thought  it  necessary  to  disguise  himself 
in  a  city  where  scarcely  ten  persons  knew  him,  and  in 
the  twilight,  to  follow  his  friend,  who  carried  his  portman- 
teau. Even  to  his  last  days  Richter  loved  to  relat^  his 
flight,  as  he  called  it,  out  of  Leipzig. 

As  soon  as  Paul  found  himself  under  his  mother's  roof, 
he  wrote  to  his  friend  Oerthel,  who  remained  at  the  Uni- 
versity :  "  I  send  thy  mantle  back  ;  and,  merely  on  ac- 
count of  the  cold  wind,  of  which  in  Leipzig  I  had  formed 
no  idea,  do  I  owe  thee  more  gratitude  for  this,  and  for  the 
over-hose,  than  I  could  have  believed  possible.  Speaking 
without  hyperbole,  to  them  I  owe  it  that  I  was  not 
wholly  congealed,  instead  of  having  only  my  right  hand 
frozen,  on  my  arrival.  I  can  scarcely  write,  and  should 
this  inflexibility,  like  that  of  all  frozen  limbs,  return 
every  winter,  I  shall  be  constrained  to  put  off  wTiting 
satires  until  the  summer,  and  be  like  those  porcupine 
men  in  London,  who  can  only  embrace  their  friends  in 
moulting  time.  I  journeyed  under  Herman's  name,  and 
first  gave  my  own  at  my  own  door.  I  heard,  on  the 
way,  one  peasant  say  to  another,  who  was  under  the 
strict  government  of  his  wife,  '  You  have  found  your 
Mann  in  her.'     I  took  it  merely  for  a  bon-mot. 

"  Notliing  can  embellish  a  beautiful  lace  more  than  a 
narrow  band,  tliat  indicates  a  small  wound,  drawn  cross- 
wise over  the  brow.  I  saw  this  on  a  beautiful  girl  on 
the  way.  One  should  try,  from  time  to  time,  to  give  his 
wife  a  little  wound  on  the  forehead,  that  she  might  be 
obliged  to  bind  her  brow  with  tliis  pretty  ornament." 

Tliere  is  an  amusing  letter  from  Paul  to  his  friend 
Oerthel,  written  directly  after  his  flight  from  Leipzig. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  163 

"  Through  negligence,  not  of  my  own,  this  letter  and 
thy  mantle  comes  to  thee  a  post-day  later  than  they 
should.  My  visit  to  thy  dear  parents  could  not  be  more 
welcome  than  at  this  time,  for  I  relieved  the  anxiety  that 
your  last  letter  had  caused,  and  which  had  been  increased 
by  certain  noises,  falls  and  blows,  that  for  some  time  past 
had  come  from  thy  chamber.  Would  that  through  tliis 
spectre  appearance  thy  fatal  unbelief  could  be  abated ; 
for  I  am  persuaded  that  if  you  went  so  far  as  to  believe 
in  spirits  and  in  the  Devil,  a  few  steps  further  would 
bring  you  to  a  belief  in  God. 

"  By  this  occurrence,  the  suspicion  came  to  me  whether 
certain  spirits  do  not  foretell  other  tilings  than  bodUy 
calamities.  Why  should  they  not  inform  us  of  the  indis- 
position of  the  soul  ?  I  propose  these  two  questions,  as  I 
am  in  fact  of  opinion  that  the  noises  and  blows  that  came 
from  thy  chamber  do  not  prophesy  the  sickness  of  thy 
body,  but  the  bad  state  of  thy  soul.  It  is  certain  at  least 
that  they  must  mean  something. 

"  I  close  this  letter  with  the  hope  that  you  will  not 
treat  me  as  usual  in  our  correspondence,  but  that  you  will 
as  seldom  as  possible  send  me  a  line." 

Its  close  proves  the  sportive  and  ironical  sense  of  the 
whole  letter. 

The  darkest  period  of  our  hero's  life  was  a.d.  1784, 
when  he  fled  from  Leipzig  and  went  in  disguise  '^'"  ^^' 
to  Ilof.  The  lawsuit  had  stripped  his  mother  of  the  Little 
property  she  inhei'ited  from  the  doth-weaver,  and  she 
had  been  obliged  to  part  with  the  respectable  homestead 
where  the  honest  man  had  carried  on  his  labors.  She 
was  now  living  with  one  or  more  of  Paul's  brothers,  in  a 
small  tenement,   containing  but  one  apartment,   where 


164  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

cooking,  washing,  cleaning,  spinning,  and  all  the  beehive 
labors  of  domestic  life  must  go  on  together. 

To  this  small  and  overcrowded  apartment,  whicli  hence- 
forth must  be  Paul's  only  study,  he  brought  his  twelve 
volumes  of  extracts,  a  head  that  in  itself  contained  a 
library,  a  tender  and  sympathizing  heart,  a  true,  high- 
minded,  self-sustaining  spirit.  His  exact  situation  was 
this.  The  success  of  the  first  and  second  volumes  of  his 
Greenland  Lawsuits  had  encouraged  him  to  Avrite  a 
third,  —  a  volume  of  satires,  under  the  name  of  Selec- 
lections  from  the  Papers  of  the  Devil ;  but  for  this  we 
have  seen  he  had  strained  every  nerve  in  vain  to  find  a 
publisher.  This  manuscript,  therefore,  formed  part  of 
the  little  luggage,  whicli  his  friend  Oerthel  had  smuggled 
out  of  Leipzig.  It  was  winter,  and  from  his  window  he 
looked  out  upon  the  cold,  empty,  frozen  street  of  the  lit- 
tle city  of  Hof,  or  he  was  obliged  to  be  a  prisoner,  with- 
out, as  he  says,  "  the  prisoners'  fare  of  bread  and  water, 
for  he  had  only  the  latter ;  and  if  a  gulden  found  its  way 
into  the  house,  the  jubilee  was  such  that  the  windows 
were  nearly  broken  with  joy."  At  the  same  time,  he 
was  under  the  ban  of  his  costume  martyrdom ;  this  he 
could  have  laughed  at,  and  reformed ;  but  hunger  and 
thirst  were  actual  evils,  and  when  of  prisoner's  food  he 
had  only  the  thinner  part,  he  could  well  exclaim,  as  Car- 
lyle  has  said,  — 

"  Night  it  must  be  e'er  Fricdland's  star  will  beam." 
"  Without  was  no  help,  no  counsel,  but  there  lay  a  giant 
force  witliin  ;  and  so  from  the  depths  of  that  sori-ow  and 
abasement   his   lietter  soul  rose  purified  and   invincible, 
like  Hercules  from  his  long  labors." 

"  "What  is  poverty,"  he  said,  at  this  time,  "  that  a  man 
should  whine  under  it?    It  is  but  like  the  pain  of  piercing 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  165 

the  ears  of  a  maiden,  and  you  hang  precious  jewels  in 
the  wound." 

The  very  day  of  Paul's  arrival  at  home,  the  16th 
of  November,  he  made  known  to  his  friend  Vogel,  the 
pastor  of  Rehau,  liis  return.  He  seems  to  have  felt  some 
timidity  about  presenting  himself  at  his  house,  as  he  had 
been  a  negligent  correspondent.  But  there  was  no  rea- 
son. Vogel  answered  immediately.  "  I  am  so  rejoiced  at 
your  arrival  in  Hof,  that  for  joy  I  cannot  contain  myself, 
much  less  write  a  letter.  Hof  is  only  two  hours  distant 
from  Rehau,  and  in  the  morning  I  shall  see  my  best 
friend  there,  unless  in  the  morning,  at  riglit  early  day- 
light, you  step  into  the  old  apartment." 

The  intercourse  of  the  two  friends  was  immediately 
established  on  the  most  familiar  footing.  Vogel  was  him- 
self an  author,  and  his  manuscripts  were  sent  to  Paul  for 
his  criticism  and  correction.  In  one  of  them  Paul  ac- 
cuses his  friend  of  stealing  five  comparisons  from  him,  — 
fifty  would  scarcely  have  been  missed  from  Richter's,  at 
tliis  time,  exuberantly  ornamented  style. 

As  Vogel's  library  had  been  the  place  where  Paul  had 
become  his  own  instructor,  he  immediately  resumed  his 
rights  there,  and  there  w^as  a  continual  sending  back- 
wards and  forwards  of  books,  manuscripts,  and  letters, 
and  Paul's  younger  brother  was  tlie  INIercury.  Paul  was 
also  a  favorite  with  the  Frau  Anna,  the  wife  of  Vogel, 
and  as  the  philosophy  of  hunger  was  studied  so  thoroughly 
at  home,  we  may  easily  imagine  that  she  took  a  womanly 
interest  in  providing  for  Richter,  when  he  visited  them, 
something  more  than  the  intellectual  food  of  the  library. 
That  he  had  more  pressing  wants,  the  note  of  the  25th 
of  December  will  show. 

"  You  are  the  Pope  from  whom  the  destitute  souls  in 


l66  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Hof  receive  a  dispensation  from  fasting.  You  go  further 
than  tlie  Pope.  You  give  yourself  the  food,  that  you  per- 
mit. This  time  I  pray  for  the  Heercticorum  Cntalogus  ; 
Selisaire  oberauch  ;  Lightfooti  Horce  Hebraicce,  &c.  Solo- 
mon asked  for  wisdom  rather  than  riches,  and  received 
both.  I  imitate  him  in  this  letter,  —  may  I  also  receive 
his  answer ! 

"  My  mother  is  in  the  greatest  perplexity.  This  fes- 
tival's gifts,  and  the  tax  falling  at  the  same  time,  have 
•wholly  exhausted  her.  Ah,  dear  friend,  if  I  could  only 
help  her !  I  mean  if  you  could  do  me  and  her  so  great 
a  favor !  If  from  your  church  income  you  could  lend  us 
about  twenty-five  gulden,  secured  upon  a  safe  mortgage ! 
Dear  friend,  if  you  can,  —  Do  not  desert  me !  " 

The  request  must  have  been  granted,  for,  soon  after, 
Paul  wrote  in  this  sportive  manner  :  — 

"  I  have  no  news,  except  that  the  destruction  of  Hof 
by  an  earthquake  has  been  prophesied,  and  appears  to  be 
confidently  expected.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  in  this  short  room 
for  repentance,  we  may  be  all  truly  converted.  I  shall 
be  well  satisfied  if  I  do  not  arrive  in  heaven  so  soon,  for 
I  would  willingly,  before,  enjoy  one  more  visit  at  Rehau, 
where  I  live  in  such  freedom  that  I  am  not  obliged  from 
politeness  to  speak,  if  I  would  rather  be  silent.  If  we 
are  neither  swallowed  nor  shaken,  I  will  visit  you  next 
week,  and  frizzle  the  heads  of  your  spiritual  children.  .  .  . 

"  Locke  !  if  thy  spirit  should  overlook  this  letter  while 
the  Herr  Vogel  is  reading  it,  influence  him  for  the  best, 
and  induce  him  to  send  me  thy  work  upon  the  Human 
Understanding,  to  improve  my  own  ;  for  I  know  well  thy 
spirit  powerfully  inspires  Jiis.  (If  I  were  in  your  place, 
I  would  not  turn  the  leaf,  for,  dear  heaven  !  what  can 
come  now  but  something  that  will  not  please  you.) 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  167 

"  Having  done  with  Locke,  I  must  turn  to  some  one 
else,  and  it  is  happy  for  me  that  the  Saint  Anna  *  comes 
to  my  help,  who,  according  to  the  Catholic  faith,  can  en- 
rich. Truly,  Saint  Anna,  tell  me  thyself,  is  it  suitable 
for  me  to  pray  again  to  the  Ilerr  Pastor  Vogel  (who  has 
already  done  so  much  for  the  nourishment  of  the  two 
elementary  parts  of  my  existence),  to  promise  me  again, 
in  the  name  of  my  motlier,  eight  or  ten  gulden  from  the 
revenue  of  God's  house  ?  At  least  it  is  more  suitable  for 
the  Saint  Anna,  that  she  should  present  such  a  prayer  in 
the  name  of  benevolence.  Thou  art  far  holier  than  I,  a 
poor  satire  writer,  and  he  can  hardly  deny  thee.  It  is 
enough  that  thou  art  a  woman ! 

"  If,  now,  the  ill-humored  Church  Fathers  should  step 
into  the  room,  use  all  thy  power,  whatever  may  be  the 
reliques,  to  work  a  miracle.  Give  to  my  mother,  in  the 
eyes  of  the  old  Fathers  of  the  Church,  the  form  of  the 
Herr  Pastor ;  this  is  very  easy,  —  you  will  only  have  to 
draw  upon  her  a  pair  of  hos6n  and  a  morning  gown,  and 
furnish  her  with  a  good  stock  of  heterodoxy,  reason,  and 
gayety. 

"P.  S.  Should  the  Saint  Anna  forget  to  say  to  you, 
that  the  wliole  thing  is  on  account  of  an  extremely  press- 
ing circumstance,  tliat  will  last  only  as  long  as  the  moon, 
I  do  it  herewith." 

I  have  quoted  these  letters  that  the  reader  may  see 
in  what  friendly  relations  Richter  lived  with  the  family 
at  Rehau  ;  and  although  there  was  an  attempt  to  poison 
this  mutually  confidential  intercourse  by  the  slanders  of 
some  evil-minded  persons  in  Ilof,  Paul's  noble  character 
was  too  well  appreciated  by  the  pastor  and  his  wife  for 
them  to  succeed. 

*  The  sportive  title  of  the  Frau  Vogel. 


l68  LIFE    OF    JP:AN    PAUL. 

The  distance  from  Hof  to  Vogel's  house  was  only  a 
two  hours'  walk,  and  the  protecting  Saint  Anna  would 
not  fail  on  a  Sunday  or  holiday,  when  she  expected  the 
welcome  Ilofer  friend,  to  Offer  those  graceful  and  kind 
attentions  that  only  a  woman,  let  alone  a  saint,  knows 
how  to  bestow.  Thus  Paul  continued  almost  without  a 
momentary  interruption  of  his  cheerfulness,  to  study  and 
write,  never  giving  up  the  hope,  the  trusting  confidence, 
that  what  he  so  painfully  wrought  out  in  concealment 
and  poverty  would  one  day  appear  in  the  full  light  of 
fame. 

Two  books  of  this  period,  equally  curious  for  the 
strange  circumstances  under  whidi  they  were  produced, 
remain.  The  mother's  record  of  her  gains  from  spinning 
cotton,  which  she  carried  far  into  the  night,  and  no  doubt 
often  wetted  with  her  tears ;  *  and  Paul's  "  Little  Book 
of  Devotion,"  f  composed  also  in  the  solitary  night,  when 
he  strengthened  his  high-hearted  resolution  by  self-com- 
munion and  humble  resignation  to  the  will  of  God.  A 
few  extracts  will  show  the  spirit  of  this  book. 

OF    PAIN. 

Every  evU  is  an  occasion  and  a  teacher  of  resolution. 
Every  disagreeable  emotion  is  a  proof  that  I  have  been 
faithless  to  my  resolutions. 

An  evil  vanishes  if  I  do  not  ask  after  it.  Think  of  a 
worse  situation  than  that  in  which  thou  art. 

Not  to  the  evil,  but  to  myself,  do  I  owe  my  pain. 
Epictetus  was  not  unhappy  ! 

*  Of  this  hard-earned  money  twelve  sliilliiigs,  nearly  half,  went  to 
pay  for  Samuel's  new  boots. 
t  Andaclitsbticlikin. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  169 

Vanity,  insensibility,  and  custom,  make  one  steadikst. 
Wherefore  hot  virtue  still  more  ? 

Never  say,  if  you  had  not  these  sorrows,  that  you  would 
bear  others  better. 

What  is  sixty  years'  pain  to  eternity  ? 

Necessity,  if  it  cannot  be  altered,  becomes  resignation. 

OF    GLORY. 

Most  men  judge  so  miserably ;  why  would  you  be 
praised  by  a  child? 

No  one  would  praise  you  in  a  beggar's  frock ;  be  not 
proud  of  the  esteem  that  is  given  to  your  coat. 

Do  not  expect  more  esteem  from  othei-s  because  you 
deserve  more,  but  reflect  that  they  will  expect  still  more 
merit  in  yourself. 

Do  not  seek  to  justify  all  thy  actions.  \'^alue  nothing 
mci'ely  because  it  is  thy  own,  and  look  not  always  upon 
thyself. 

Do  not  wait  for  extraordinary  opportunities  for  good 
actions,  but  make  use  of  common  situations.  A  long-con- 
tinued walk  is  better  than  a  short  flight. 

Never  act  in  the  heat  of  emotion ;  let  resison  answer 
first. 

Look  upon  every  day  as  the  whole  of  life  ;  not  merely 
as  a  section,  and  enjoy  the  present  without  wishing  through 
haste  to  spring  on  to  another  lying-before-thee  section. 

Seek  to  accjuire  tliat  virtue  in  a  month  to  which  thou 
feelest  the  least  inclined. 

It  betrays  a  greater  soul  to  answer  a  Satire  with  patience 
rather  than  with  wit. 

We  never  think  of  tlie  sorrow  of  our  dreams ;  where- 
fore should  we  in  the  dream  of  life  ? 
8 


170  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

If  thou  wouldst  be  free,  joyful,  and  calm,  take  the  only 
means  that  cannot  be  affected  by  accident,  —  Virtue. 

This  little  book,  which  should  be  called  a  manual 
of  practical  philosophy  rather  than  a  book  of  devo- 
tion, strengthened  Paul's  cheerful  stoicism,  to  which  he 
added  devout  prayer  and  strenuous  exertion.  "  Evil," 
said  he,  "is  like  the  nightmare;  the  instant  you  bestir 
yourself  it  has  already  ended."  His  strength  and  energy, 
and  at  last  his  trust,  increased,  and  was  established  on 
the  immovable  foundations  of  faith  and  truth. 

In  this  chapter  I  have  scarcely  given  an  idea  of  the 
hard  necessities  of  Richter  in  this  little  over-crowded 
house  in  the  midst  of  his  poor  family.  In  Leipzig  he 
had  to  contend  only  with  his  own  necessities ;  but  here 
he  had  at  every  moment  the  spectacle  of  his  pain-suffer- 
ing mother,  his  sick  brother,  and  of  poverty  so  great,  that 
he  says  of  prisoners'  fare,  they  sometimes  had  only  the 
water.  When,  in  later  years,  his  love  of  salad  was  re- 
marked, he  referred  it  to  that  time  in  Hof  when  the  food 
of  the  family  consisted  of  dry  bread  and  salad ;  and  once 
he  entreats  from  his  friend,  as  of  the  utmost  necessity,  the 
loan  of  two  or  three  gulden. 

In  the  midst  of  this  irksome  poverty,  under  the  dark 
shutting  out  of  hope,  the  youth  of  two  and  twenty  had 
the  strength  of  mind  to  persevere  in  his  resolution  to  be- 
come an  author.  It  was  the  point  of  time  when  to  reach 
the  ideal  that  filled  his  soul  took  such  entii-e  possession 
of  him  that  he  scarcely  noticed  his  painful  surroundings. 
As  Otto  said  of  him,  "  In  this,  which  to  another  would 
have  been  the  most  unfortunate  period  of  life,  Paul  pos- 
sessed a  self-reliance,  a  peace  and  joy  of  soul,  tliat  only 
trust  in  God  could  have  sustained  in  the  highest  and 
h()li«'.>Jt  efforts." 


CHAPTER    VIII 


Christian  Otto.  —  Studies.  —  Herman.  —  His  Death. 


MMEDIATELY  after  Richter's  re-  a.d.  nss, 
turn  to  Hof,  as  mentioned  in  the  last  -^'-  22. 
chapter,  he  formed  that  remarkable  friendship 
with  Otto,  which  continued  without  a  moment's 
interruption  through  the  life  of  the  poet,  and,  on  the  part 
of  Otto,  it  did  not  then  cease.  Grief  for  the  loss  of  Richter 
hastened  his  own  death,  and  put  an  end  to  his  efforts  to 
perpetuate  the  memory  of  his  friend  in  the  memoir  that 
has  till  this  time  furnished  the  materials  for  our  biog- 
raphy. 

In  the  midst  of  the  hard  necessities  that  had  driven 
Richter  from  Leipzig,  his  victualler  followed  him  to  Hof, 
and  presented  her  demand  for  the  frugal  repasts  she  had 
furnished.  Paul  was  in  the  greatest  perplexity.  It  was 
impossible  to  send  the  woman,  who  had  come  this  distance 
on  foot,  empty  away,  and  so  large  a  demand  was  beyond 
the  help  of  his  friend,  the  Pastor  Vogel  of  Rehau.  In 
his  distress  he  turned  to  the  only  men  in  Hof  who  would 
not  have  repulsed  him  from  their  doors ;  tliese  were  the 
two  brothers  Otto,  who  from  this  time  united  themselves 
to  him  with  intimate  sympathy.  They  became  surety  for 
the  whole  demand,  and  sent  the  woman  back  with  a  con- 


172  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

siderable  sum.  This  tormenting  spirit,  however,  did  not 
inform  Paul  that  the  brothers  had  become  surety  for 
the  debt,  and  they  had  too  much  delicacy  to  mention  it ; 
so  that  every  fine  day  this  inexperienced  debtor  was 
alarmed  with  the  dread  of  the  appearance  of  his  inex- 
orable creditor. 

Christian  Otto  was  the  son  of  the  Vesper  preacher* 
in  Hof,  who,  from  his  ascetic  character,  and  the  severe 
earnestness  of  liis  preaching,  was  called  the  Strafprediger. 
Christian  had  been  sent  to  the  University  at  Leipzig ;  he 
returned  after  the  death  of  his  father,  and  occupied  the 
same  house  with  his  mother  and  sisters  in  Hof.  He  had 
been  destined  to  the  ministry,  as  "  the  theological  books 
were  all  ready  for  him  in  his  father's  study "  ;  but  his 
taste  led  him  to  devote  himself  to  general  science,  and  as 
the  circumstances  of  the  family  were  easy,  he  was  able  to 
follow  his  inclination.  In  all  other  respects  the  circum- 
stances of  the  two  friends  were  alike,  and  served  to  knit 
them  in  the  bonds  of  the  closest  friendship. 

The  elements  of  Otto's  character  were  warm  sympathy, 
unequalled  tenderness,  and  self-sacrificing  love,  together 
witli  severe  integrity  and  steadfastness  of  purpose.  The 
penetration  and  discrimination  of  his  mind,  together  with 
his  sympathy  in  all  that  was  highest  and  noblest  in  litera- 
ture and  in  life,  singularly  fitted  him  for  the  ofl:ice  of  a 
critic,  and  in  after  years,  when  Kichter  had  found  i)ub- 
lishers  for  his  works,  he  never  printed  a  line  that  liad 
not  passed  tmce  through  the  ordeal  of  Otto's  perusal  and 
criticism. 

As  these  years,  spent  with  his  mother  in  Hof,  were  the 
most  uninterruptedly  studious  of  Richter's  life,  it  seems 

*  The  afternoon  preacher  in  Protestant  churches  is  called  the  Ve»per 
prediger.    Strafprediger,  —  repentance-preacher. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  173 

tlie  place  to  give  some  account  of  the  manner  in  which  he 
pursued  his  studies.  That  plan  must  be  a  good  one,  and 
of  use  to  others,  of  which  he  could  say,  "  Of  one  thing  I 
am  certain,  I  have  made  as  much  out  of  myself  as  could 
be  made  of  the  stuff,  and  no  man  should  require  more." 

First  in  importance,  he  aimed,  in  the  rules  he  formed 
for  himself,  at  a  just  division  of  time  and  power,  and 
he  never  permitted  himself,  from  the  first,  to  spend  his 
strength  upon  anything  useless.  He  so  managed  his 
capital,  that  the  future  should  pay  him  an  ever-increas- 
ing interest  on  the  present.  The  nourishment  of  his 
mind  was  drawn  from  three  great  sources,  —  living  Na- 
ture, in  connection  with  human  life  ;  the  world  of  books ; 
a,nd  the  inner  world  of  thought :  these  he  considered  the 
raw  material  given  him  to  work  up. 

We  have  already  mentioned  his  manuscript  library. 
In  his  fifteenth  year,  before  he  entered  the  Hof  gymna- 
sium, he  had  made  many  quarto  volumes,  containing  hun- 
dreds of  pages  of  closely  written  extracts  from  all  the 
celebrated  works  he  could  borrow,  and  from  the  periodi- 
cals of  the  day.  In  this  way  he  had  formed  a  repertory 
of  many  of  the  sciences.  For  if,  in  the  beginning,  when 
he  thought  himself  destined  to  the  study  of  theology,  liis 
extracts  were  from  philosophical  theology,  the  second 
volume  contained  natural  history,  poetry,  and,  in  succes- 
sion, medicine,  jurisprudence,  and  universal  science.  He 
had  also  anticipated  one  of  the  results  of  modern  book- 
making.  He  wrote  a  collection  of  what  are  now  called 
hand-books,  of  geography,  natural  history,  follies,  good  and 
bad  names,  interesting  facts,  comicjU  occurrences,  touch- 
ing incidents,  &c. 

During  this  residence  with  his  mother  in  her  poor 
cottage,  he  also  wrote  almost  daily  to  Oerthel  in  Leipzig. 


174  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

He  wrote  letters  as  though  they  were  books,  and  his 
books  are  written  in  the  style  of  letters.  He  kept  also  a 
book  in  which  he  transcribed  his  letters,  his  thoughts,  and 
a  play  of  wit  for  future  use  in  writing  books.  One  writer 
says  in  German  phrase,  "  that  he  was  as  thought-thrifty 
and  thought-storing  as  he  was  thought-wealthy." 

At  this  time  he  says,  Tlie  trutli  is  more  to  him  than 
its  ornament,  the  thought  more  than  its  imagery,  and  he 
writes  in  a  simple,  unornamented  style.  At  length,  he 
passed  from  philosophy  to  poetry,  not  immediately,  but  in 
circuitous  ways,  through  the  thorny  and  stinging  path  of 
the  satirist  to  the  more  common,  the  romantic  poetry  of 
the  novelist. 

He  observed  Nature  as  a  great  book  from  which  he 
was  to  make  extracts,  and  carefully  collected  all  the  facts 
that  bore  the  stamp  of  a  contriving  mind,  whose  adapta- 
tion he  could  see,  or  only  anticipate,  and  formed  a  book 
which  bore  the  simple  title  "  Nature." 

When  he  meditated  a  new  work,  the  first  thing  was  to 
stitch  together  a  blank  book,  in  which  he  sketched  the 
outlines  of  his  characters,  the  principal  scenes,  thoughts 
to  be  worked  in,  &c.,  and  called  it  ''  Qnamj  for  Ifesperics" 
"  Quarry  for  Titan,"  &c.  One  of  his  biographers  has 
given  us  such  a  book,  containing  his  studies  for  Titan, 
which  occupies  seventy  closely  printed  duodecimo  pages. 

Richtcr  began  also  in  his  earliest  youth  to  form  a  dic- 
tionary, and  continued  it  through  the  whole  of  his  literary 
life.  In  this  he  wrote  down  synonymes,  and  all  the 
shades  of  meaning  of  which  a  word  was  susceptible.  For 
one  word  he  had  found  more  than  two  hundred  syno- 
nymes. Add  to  this  mass  of  writing,  tliat  he  copied  all 
his  letters,  and  it  is  surprising  how  any  time  remained. 
He  made  it  a  rule  to  give  but  one  half  of  the  day  to  writ- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  175 

ing,  the  other  remained  for  the_  invention  of  his  various 
works,  which  he  accomplished  while  walking  in  the  open 
air. 

These  long  walks  through  valley  and  over  mountain 
steeled  his  body  to  bear  all  vicissitudes  of  weather,  and 
added  to  his  knowledge  of  atmospheric  changes,  so  that 
he  was  called  by  his  townsmen  the  weather-prophet.  He 
is  described  by  one  who  met  him  on  the  hills,  with  open 
breast  and  flying  hair,  singing  as  he  went,  while  he  held 
a  book  in  his  hand.  Richter  at  this  time  was  slender, 
with  a  thin,  pale  face,  a  high,  nobly  formed  brow,  around 
which  curled  fine  blond  hair.  His  eyes  were  a  clear  soft 
blue,  but  capable  of  an  intense  fire,  like  sudden  lightning. 
He  had  a  well-formed  nose,  and,  as  his  biographer  ex- 
presses it,  "  a  lovely  lip-kissing  mouth."  He  wore  a 
loose  green  coat  and  straw  hat,  and  was  always  accom- 
panied by  his  dog. 

As  Richter  from  every  walk  returned  to  the  little 
household  apartment  where  his  mother  carried  on  her 
never-ceasing  female  labors,  where  half  of  every  day  he 
sat  at  his  desk,  he  became  acquainted  vnth  all  the 
thoughts,  all  the  conversation,  the  whole  circle  of  the  re- 
lations of  the  humble  society  in  Hof.  He  saw  the  value 
and  significance  of  the  smallest  things.  The  joys,  the 
sorrows,  the  loves  and  aversions,  the  whole  of  life,  in  this 
Tenier's  picture  passed  before  him.  He  himself  was  a 
principal  figure  in  this  limited  circle.  He  sat  with  Plato 
in  his  hand,  while  his  mother  scattered  fresh  sand  on  the 
floor  for  Sunday,  or  added  some  small  luxury  to  the  table 
on  days  of  festival.  His  hardly  earned  groschen  went  to 
purchase  the  goose  for  Martinmas,  while  he  dreamed  of 
his  future  glory  among  distinguished  men.  Long  years 
he  was  one  of  this  humble  society.     He  did  not  approach 


176  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

it  as  other  poets  have  clone  from  time  to  time,  to  study 
for  purposes  of  art  the  liumbler  classes  ;  he  felt  himself 
one  of  them,  and  in  this  school  he  learnt  that  sympathy 
with  humanity  Avhich  has  made  liim  emphatically  in  Ger- 
many the  "  poet  of  the  poor." 

Paul's  solitude  was  suddenly  enlivened  by  the  rfeturn 
of  Herman  from  Leipzig.  Herman  is  described  as  sin- 
gularly interesting.  To  the  noble  qualities  of  his  mind 
was  added  a  high  degree  of  personal  beauty.  His  trag- 
ical contest  with  an  ever-increasing  poverty,  his  eminent 
attainments,  vainly  opposed  to  an  adverse  destiny,  seem 
to  have  given  him  a  touching  interest  in  Richter's  heart. 
His  friendship  for  Herman  was  softened  by  something 
like  the  tenderness  of  love  for  a  feminine  nature,  and  he 
says,  in  a  sportive  letter,  that  if  Heraian  had  a  sister  he 
should  certainly  wish  to  marry  her,  provided  that  her  face 
was  like  Herman's. 

The  reader  will  pardon  it,  if  I  anticipate  events  a  little, 
and  place  togetlier  all  I  have  been  able  to  collect  of  the 
history  of  this  favorite  friend  of  Richter's. 

I  have  already  mentioned,  that  the  son  of  the  poor 
tool-maker  was  always  sheltered  from  blame  by  Paul's 
considerate  kindness,  when  obliged  by  pressing  work  to 
come  late  to  the  gymnasium.  He  followed  him  to  Leip- 
zig, and  there  his  struggles  with  poverty  must  have  been 
as  severe  as  Paul's.  Prepossessing  as  he  was  in  ajipcar- 
ance  and  manner,  he  might  have  possessed  the  key  to  all 
hearts;*  but  with  a  glowing  love  of  freedom,  he  was 
timid  and  desponding  about  himself  Beneath  a  cynical 
and  rough  expression,  he  concealed  in  the  sanctuary  of 

*  Herman's  person  was  so  charming,  that  when  Panl  gave  him  a 
letter  to  the  Pastor  Vogel,  he  wrote  on  the  margin  "  that  he  must  take 
care  of  his  wife  and  daughters." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  l'^^ 

his  mind  a  tender,  even  a  virgin  purity,  and  an  exalted 
sense  of  honor.  By  his  talents  and  information  he  was 
prepared  to  take  a  high  place  among  scientific  men,  but 
through  the  want  of  means  and  patronage  the  bloom  and 
fruit  of  his  mind  was  doomed  to  wither  and  fall.  Her- 
man could  not,  like  Eichter,  withdraw  into  his  hermitage, 
and  there  oppose  to  his  discouragements  a  waiting  and 
persevering  industry ;  he  was  obliged  to  wage  a  daily 
contest  with  the  saddening  realities  of  life.  Providence 
seemed  not  to  permit  that  Herman's  spirit  should  find  the 
resting-place  it  sougbt :  he  was,  therefore,  not  master  of  his 
dejection ;  and  Richter,  at  the  same  time  he  was  con- 
tending with  his  own  hypochondria,  saw  with  bleeding 
heart  this  fi'iend  hastening  to  the  abyss  of  despair.  He 
now  first  learnt  that  deepest  pain  of  the  inward  soul,  —  the 
tragical  contest  of  a  noble  nature  like  that  of  Herman's 
with  the  difficulties  that  social  and  political  institutions 
place  in  the  way  of  success ;  the  dark  riddle  of  the  dis- 
crepancy between  the  mighty  impulses  of  the  soul  and 
the  trivial  and  low  circumstances  that  follow  its  action, 
and  weary  out  its  effijrts  in  its  struggles  after  a  better 
existence. 

Herman  having  gained  the  object  of  his  ardent  wishes, — 
a  doctor's  degree,  —  came  to  settle  as  a  physician  in  the 
place  of  his  birth.  But  the  proverb  was  true  in  this,  as 
in  Richter's  case,  "  A  prophet  is  without  honor  in  his  own 
country,"  and  he  removed  to  Erlangen  ;  but  there  he 
found  little  alleviation  of  his  limitless  poverty,  and  was 
obliged  to  sell  his  movables  and  go  to  Gottingen,  invited 
to  give  instructions  there  to  a  young  Duke  de  Broglio, 
from  Paris.  This  employment,  although  it  had  i^vi 
charms  for  Herman,  who  thirsted  for  occupation  in  his 
beloved  science,  yet  saved  him  from  actual  want,  and  his 

8  *  L 


178  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

letter  to  Paul,  informing  him  of  his  plans,  is  written  with 
much  cheerfulness. 

Paul  wrote  to  him  about  this  time  :  — 

"  I  say  to  others,  '  Be  what  you  appear';  to  you  I  say, 
'Appear  what  thou  art!'  Suffer  like  a  man  the  Alp  press- 
ure of  fate.  Does  one  call  thee  by  name,  thou  wilt,  open 
thy  eyes,  and  instead  of  a  crushing  spectre  the  sun  will  ap- 
pear  You  are  refreshed  and  charmed  by  the  most 

pitiful  fables  as  well  as  by  the  weightiest  truths ;  like  the 
lark,  now  singing  above  the  cloud,  anon  nesting  in  the  damp 
ground.  I  am  the  Devil  if  I  do  not,  some  time  or  other, 
evolve  your  whole  character  in  a  romance.  But  make  me 
understand  how  I  can  persuade  my  readers  of  the  proba- 
bility of  your  cynical  mania ;  they  will  say  I  misunderstood 
the  character,  and  compelled  the  inconsistencies  to  meet. 

"  From  excessive  love  for  your  doctor's  hat,  I  send  you 
Hallei''s  Physiology.  The  part  relating  to  the  breath  I 
read  so  hastily  that  I  lost  my  own.  Write  to  me  not  only 
all  that  you  experience,  but  also  what  you  think  and  what 
others  think,  either  new  or  evil.  Trust  yourself  upon  the 
broad  shining  wings  of  your  understanding,  and  make 
them  bear  you  over  the  Dead  Sea,  so  as  not  to  fall  spirit- 
ually dead  within.  Do  not,  as  a  city  physician,  cure  others, 
and  suffer  yourself  to  die.  Do  not  allow  your  necessities 
to  steal  away  the  elasticity  of  your  soul ;  for  if  you  are 
Herman,  you  will  be  angry  that  you  have  ever  been  an 
anti-  or  pseudo-Herman,  although  never  to 

"  Your  friend  E." 

Richter's  letters  were  always  full  of  encouragement  and 
hope,  and  to  assist  his  removal,  he  sent  him  a  louis  d'or, 
which  we  may  well  suppose  he  could  ill  spare.  A  letter 
from  Herman  follows. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  179 

"  Dear  Richter  :  Saturday  evening,  the  6th  Septem- 
ber, I  departed,  like  a  Don  Quixote,  in  the  brown  vest 
and  hose  in  which  I  took  leave  of  the  Hof  gymnasium 
and  its  plagues,  which  the  fashion  has  hitherto  forbidden 
me  to  appear  in,  and  my  white  coat,  which  I  was  ashamed 
to  wear  in  Hof,  as  it  had  already  served  me  a  year  as  a 
night-frock.  In  the  right  pocket,  paper,  of  which  this 
letter  is  part,  the  sketch  of  the  necessary  information 
about  Gottingen,  a  pocket-handkerchief,  and  a  pair  of 
red  gloves  that  Oerthel  gave  me  when  he  read  me  the 
most  touching  passages  out  of  '  Moritz's  Soul  Experi- 
ences.' In  the  left,  a  pair  of  slippers,  a  box  with  sealing- 
wax,  penknife,  and  razor.  Under  my  left  arm  an  um- 
brella, carried  more  to  conceal  a  handkerchief,  in  which 
were  tied  up  two  shirts,  a  neckcloth,  a  pair  of  stockings, 
and  a  nightcap,  than  to  protect  me  from  the  rain.  Omnia 
mea  mecum. 

"  As  in  the  afternoon  B.,  who  had  followed  me  to  Bam- 
berg, parted  from  me,  I  first  took  a  concentrated  view  of 
my  destiny,  present  and  past.  Who  would  have  believed 
that  on  that  height,  where  the  insupportably  oppressive 
heat  of  the  sun  made  every  step  difficult,  the  Catholic 
images  planted  on  the  way  could  have  consoled  me  ? 
There  I  saw  that  exalted  man,  who  sacrificed  himself  for 
the  love  of  truth  and  mankind,  represented  under  suffer- 
ing and  bitter  injuries,  wounded  with  thorns,  with  stripes, 

and  blows,  and  bowed  down  under  the  cross Found 

I  not  in  this  an  echoing  and  an  appeasing  voice  ?  " 

In  Gottingen  Herman  found  sympathizing  friends ;  but 
the  ardor  with  which  he  pursued  his  favorite  sciences  (he 
had  begun  a  universal  encyclopaedia  of  science)  soon  un- 
dennined  his  health.  The  letters  of  the  friends  are  so 
filled  with  local  and  personal  references,  that  even  if  the 


l8o  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

limits  of  this  Life  would  permit  the  insertion  of  tliem, 
they  would  be  hardly  intelligible. 

In  January,  1796,  Herman  wrote  to  his  friend  :  — 

"  This  year  must  decide  whether  I  remain  a  physician 
or  a  patient.  Should  you  receive  no  more  letters  before 
Easter,  think  that  I  am  already  beyond  all  the  mountains  ! 
In  spring  one  flies  more  freely !  0,  dear,  good  Richter, 
when  I  remember  the  time,  those  school  years  when  I 
wandered  with  thee  at  midnight  upon  the  Schlossplatz  at 
Hof,  what  should  I  have  suffered,  if  in  the  presage  that 
assured  me  we  should  alwa}'S  be  the  sincerest  of  friends 
I  could  have  read  and  felt  what  I  am  now  ;  a  mere  human 
form,  that  through  hypochondria  and  opposing  fate  the 
soul  threatens,  sometimes  under  one,  sometimes  under 
another  appearance,  to  leave.  Had  I  foreseen  this,  it 
had  been  no  wonder  if,  through  madness,  I  had  antici- 
pated by  a  voluntary  stroke  the  last  consequences  of  so 
cruel  a  destiny.  Only  the  hope  of  still  for  a  few  years 
pursuing  my  Elements  yet  retains  me.  I  must  now  cease, 
but  will  continue  the  letter  in  a  freer  moment." 

The  freer  moment  that  csmie  to  poor  Herman  released 
him  from  the  burden  of  life,  and  permits  us  to  return  to 
the  little  apartment  in  Hof,  and  to  our  hero. 

How  deeply  Richter,  through  the  loss  of  this  friend, 
was  shaken  a))pears  from  his  letters.  It  cut  dce{)cr  into 
his  soul  than  the  death  of  Oerthel.  Herman  was  far  more 
genial,  and  the  most  beloved  of  all  his  friends.  The  almost 
feminine  love  that  he  felt  for  hira  —  as  though  Herman 
were  tlie  manly  party  in  their  iilliance  —  was  strength- 
ened rather  than  diminished  through  their  separation. 
Richter  wrote  to  him,  a  short  time  before  his  death,  that 
he  coidd  wish  to  marry  his  sister  if  her  face  Avere  like  his, 
were  he  not  ashamed  to  marry  from  such  a  motive. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Adam  von  Oerthel.  —  Residence  at  Topen.  —  Death  of  his 
Fkiend.  —  Change  of  Views. 


T  this  time,  Richter's  other  school  and  a.  d.  1786, 
college  friend,  Adam  von  Oerthel,  re-  -^'-  23. 
turned  from  Leipzig  to  his  father's  residence 
^  in  Topen,  and  his  friendship  soon  suggested  a 
plan  to  make  his  friend  Richter's  situation,  as  he  hoped, 
more  comfortable.  He  had  a  younger  brother,  and  he 
proposed  that  Paul  should  remove  into  their  family  as 
his  instructor,  principally  in  French.  Paul  consented, 
as  he  said  in  his  answer  to  Adam's  letter,  "  to  become  the 
crutch,  or  the  wooden  leg,  to  help  the  boy's  halting  and 
stumbling  through  the  language."  His  letter  is  so  char- 
acteristic that  it  seems  wrong  to  withhold  it  from  the 
reader. 

"  LiEBER  Oerthel  :  J'y  ai  r^fleche.  Enfin,  j'ai  dit  h 
moi  meme :  '  En  verit6,  mon  cher  moi,  je  vois,  que  tu  n'a 
pas  encore  les  ailes,  qui  te  doivent  porter  de  Hof.  Pen- 
dant quelles  eroissent,  tu  te  peux  bein  faire  une  beau  nid 
a  Topen,  ou  ton  ami  a  le  sein.  Tu  me  feras  un  grand 
plaisir,  si  tu  y  ensiegnes,  ecris,  et  lis,  c'est  a  dire,  si  tu  y 
veux  etre  le  maitre  de  ton  eleve,  du  monde  entier,  et  de 
toi-merae.  Aussi  dois-tu  comptu  pour  quelque  chose  que 
tu  y  es  assure  de  ne  mourir  pas  de  faim.    Ne  crains  point 


182  LIFE     OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

de  perdre  ta  liberie ;  tu  changes  seulement  des  borncs 
qui  t'environnent  deja.' " 

It  was  on  New  Year's  day,  1787,  that  our  Richter, 
with  the  hope  of  a  better  year  than  the  last,  entered  upon 
his  office  of  teacher  in  the  house  of  the  Herr  Counsellor 
von  Oerthel,  in  Topen,  not  many  hours'  distance  froin  his 
mother's  residence.  In  leaving  his  motlier's  narrow  apart- 
ment, the  pressure  of  poverty  was  lightened,  and  he  was 
reheved  from  the  eternal  din  of  female  labors,  but  he  did 
not  find  a  paradise  of  rest  in  Topen. 

Herr  von  Oerthel  was  a  man  of  limited  mind,  rough 
manners,  and  cold  heart.  His  manner  of  granting  a 
request  was  so  ungracious,  that  no  one,  with  proper  self- 
respect,  could  make  one ;  and  in  becoming  rich,  he  had 
learnt  to  love  and  to  hoard  his  money.  But  Paul's  pleas- 
ure in  being  with  his  friend  Adam  was  great;  and  there 
was  also  presented  to  him  the  opportunity  of  opening  in 
the  depths  of  the  innocent  and  hopeful  soul  of  a  child 
new  treasures  for  psychological  observation  in  the  unfold- 
ing of  the  spiritual  and  moral  germs  implanted  there. 

Although  Topen  lay  deeper  than  Hof,  tlie  place  was 
colder,  rougher,  and  more  mountainous.  Paul  was  also 
farther  removed  from  the  Pastor  Vogel,  and  his  library. 
It  required  all  the  affection  of  his  friend  Adam  to  make 
his  situation  in  Topen  bearable,  as  he  soon  found  himself 
wholly  disappointed  in  the  character  and  disposition  of  his 
pupil.  He  never  learnt  to  know  the  worth  of  the  instruc- 
tor who  opened  his  whole  heart  to  him.  Richter  was  un- 
able to  gain  the  love  or  confidence  of  the  boy,  who  soon 
joined  himself  with  his  inferiors  to  injure  his  instructor. 
A  man  of  Paul's  sensibility  would  have  suffered  still  more 
in  such  a  family,  had  not  the  Frau  von  Oerthel  regarded 
liim  with  motherly  care.    He  had  the  good  fortune  in  this, 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  183 

as  in  every  other  instance,  to  gain  the  affection  of  the  mis- 
tress of  the  family.  Even  in  his  latest  years,  Paul  never 
forgot  the  goodness  of  this  excellent  woman,  nor  the  cup 
of  coffee  which  she  secretly  conveyed  to  his  apartment, 
and  the  liberal  hand  that  was  only  restrained  by  the 
avarice  of  her  husband. 

The  painful  and  dispiriting  circumstances  in  which 
Paul  found  himself  in  the  Oerthelshen  house  seem  at 
last  to  have  broken  down  his  almost  superhuman  cheer- 
fulness and  elasticity  of  spirits,  and  to  have  attacked  and 
injured  his  robust  health.  He  became  subject  to  hypo- 
chondria. His  gayety  deserted  him.  It  became  evident 
that  under  such  circumstances  he  could  never  become  at 
home  in  Topen.  Herr  Oerthel's  law  library  did  not  fur- 
nish him  with  the  books  that  he  loved,  and  the  increas- 
ing illness  of  his  friend  Adam  deprived  the  house  of  all 
cheerfulness. 

At  length,  after  much  suffering,  his  friend  expired  in 
his  arms.  Paul's  situation  became  less  tolerable.  His 
pupil  possessed  none  of  the  endearing  qualities  of  his 
brother,  and  with  the  father  his  relations  were  not  more 
agreeable,  especially  as  his  manner  of  fulfilling  the  con- 
tract with  Richter  was  harsh  and  miserly.  He  was  abso- 
lutely in  debt  to  Paul  when  he  left  his  house.  With  this 
bitter  experience,  Richter  returned,  with  wounded  and 
sorrowing  heart,  to  his  mother  and  his  old  apartment  at 
Hof. 

Paul's  friendship  with  the  spiritual  and  witty  Pastor 
Vogel  continued  firm  as  in  his  Hofer  years,  and  brought 
many  bright  Sundays  into  his  life,  and  many  good  books 
into  his  study ;  and,  as  Vogel's  early  prophecy  about 
his  young  friend  found  confirmation,  his  esteem  increased, 
deeply  augmenting  his  regret  at  the  loss  of  his  society 


184  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

•when  Vogel,  at  the  beginnmg  of  1787,  removed  from  Re- 
hau  to  Ai'zburg.  Tlie  distance,  indeed,  was  not  great, 
but  the  daily  intercourse  of  the  friends  was  interrupted. 

I  have  passed  over,  with  great  rapidity,  the  two  years 
and  nine  months  that  Eichter  was  private  instructor  in 
the  family  at  Topen.  They  were  perhaps  the  most, un- 
happy of  his  life,  rendered  so  by  the  stupidity  and  in- 
gratitude of  his  pupil,  his  dependence  on  a  harsh  and 
avaricious  principal,  flie  death  of  one  of  liis  most  inti- 
mate friends,  and  the  absence  and  despair  of  another. 
But  these  years  of  outward  mortification  and  sorrow 
were  rich  in  their  spiritual  influences  upon  the  ge- 
nius of  the  poet.  The  question  must  have  constantly 
recurred  to  the  readers  of  Hesperus  and  Titan,  how 
could  Jean  Paul  for  so  many  years  have  written  nothing 
but  bitter  satires  ?  How  could  talents,  so  consecrated  in 
after  years  to  all  that  is  true  and  beautiful  in  life,  have 
found  any  other  expression  than  that  of  love  ?  Perhaps 
one  answer  may  be,  that  every  healthy  and  eminent  fac- 
ulty is  augmented  in  power  through  self-denial.  He  has 
himself  said :  "  The  young  poet  should  devoutly  and  in- 
wardly love,  wonder,  pray,  and  weep,  but  he  should  pass 
slowly  from  thought  to  expression.  The  emotions  should 
shut  themselves  in  their  sanctuary  ten  long  years  from 
that  corkscrew  the  poet's  pen.  Insealed,  they  are  con- 
densed, and  do  not  evaporate  in  the  air  of  the  market 
and  tlic  world."  * 

The  fact  was,  that  his  genius  had  as  yet  found  no  ade- 
quate expression  ;  but  a  succession  of  emotions  on  a  mind 
like  Richter's  had  the  serious  and  deep  effect  of  great 
epochs  in  life.  The  image  of  his  suffering  friend,  contend- 
ing with  the  bitterest  poverty  and  the  deepest  despair, 

•  Preface  to  Satires. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  185 

turned  his  inward  eye  to  the  whole  of  suffering  human- 
ity ;  and  at  the  same  time  tliat  he  sought  gi-ounds  of  con- 
solation for  his  friend,  he  looked  deeper  into  his  own  soul, 
and  there  found,  not  satire  for  the  imperfections  of  hu- 
manity, but  a  true  understanding  of  the  end  of  all  suffer- 
ing, and  poetical  illustrations  of  the  same.  How  could 
he  avoid  forming  the  resolution,  which  he  soon  ventured 
upon,  instead  of  wounding  with  satire  or  enlivening  with 
caricature,  to  use  such  weapons  only  occasionally,  against 
the  oppressor  and  the  wicked  ?  How  could  he  refrain 
from  the  effort  to  alleviate  the  great  sum  of  human  sor- 
row which,  in  the  image  of  his  friend,  he  found  beating 
at  his  heart,  by  elevating  views  of  human  destiny,  and 
the  use  of  the  rich  treasures  of  love  and  hope  and  trust, 
his  genius  had  placed  at  his  command  ? 

At  this  time  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Otto  :  — 
"When  my  brother  died,  I  believed  a  day  could  not 
come  when  my  heart  would  be  more  crushed.  But 
the  day  came !  My  friend  Herman  died  of  a  quickly 
destroying  hypochondria,  beloved  by  nature,  hated  by 
fortune  !  Then  I  read  lOopstock's  ode  to  Death,  and 
changed  my  question :  '  Of  three  friends  wherefore  hast 
thou  lost  two  ? '  into  '  Why,  in  this  sad  waste  of  humanity, 
hast  thou  found  three  fr-iends  ? '  and  I  could  make  no 
other  than  a  grateful  answer." 

We  have  frequent  indications,  through  all  Eichter's 
works,  how  deeply  he  was  shaken  by  the  death  of  these 
friends  ;  and,  after  representing  the  dying  scene  of  one 
of  them,  he  says,  "  I  felt  for  the  first  time,  that  upon 
the  earth  I  was  not  einheimisch  "  (a  native,  or  at  home). 
These  were  the  experiences  that  awoke  in  his  l)leeding 
and  softened  heart  a  deeply  sympathizing  imagination; 
his  spiritual  nature  made  giant  strides,  and  his  feelings 


l86  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

of  despondency  gave  place  to  a  self-consciousness  of 
power.  His  book  of  devotion  may  be  considered  as  the 
precursor  of  his  serious  writings.  In  this  he  fii-st  poured 
out,  without  reserve  or  shame,  the  earnest  and  love-need- 
ing soul  of  the  poet.  Here  he  first  expressed  those 
worthy  and  exalted  aims  to  which  he  ever  afterwards 
aspired.  He  analyzed  his  own  soul,  and  entered  upon 
the  noble  effort  to  acquire  for  himself  and  others  the 
exalted  hopes,  and  the  sure  trust  in  God,  and  in  human 
virtue,  that  is  not  shut  out  from  the  poorest  and  most 
limited  relations  of  human  life.  His  Uberal  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Christian  faith,  which  in  the  Hofer  school 
drew  upon  him  the  suspicion  of  atheism,  subjected  hira 
in  Topen  to  still  heavier  charges.  Pastor  Morg  of  To- 
pen,  a  zealous  and  severe  servant  of  the  loord,  was  not 
inclined  to  appreciate  the  bold  assertions  of  this  disciple 
of  the  spirit,  and  regarded  him  as  a  denier  of  God  and  a 
preacher  of  sin.  This  sufficed  to  light  again  in  the  soul 
of  the  self-conscious  youth  the  flame  that  once  before  was 
kindled  in  Hof  He  wrote  a  letter  to  Pastor  Morg,  which 
is  too  long  to  insert  any  but  the  closing  lines  :  — 

"  Suffer  me  to  go  my  own  way  in  my  search  for  the 
truth  and  in  defence  of  it,  not  as  an  accidental  thing,  but 
as  it  is  my  duty.  Suffer  me  to  believe  that  this  world  is 
for  the  imitation  of  God  and  Christ,  and  the  future  for 
the  exact  knowledge  of  the  same,  and  that  one  who  would 
rather  prove  the  Godhead  of  Christ  than  to  obey  his  pre- 
cepts, is  like  the  servant  who  spends  his  whole  time  in 
proving  the  nobility  of  his  master,  but  gives  him  neither 
love  nor  obedience." 

Among  all  the  authors  of  the  time,  Herder  was  the 
one  to  whom  Richter  turned  with  the  strongest  sympa- 
thies.    Herder's  great  views  of  the  world,  were   as  if 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  187 

■written  from  the  anticipations  of  his  own  soul,  and  to 
Hei'der  alone  he  unveiled  the  deeper  and  more  earnest 
impulses  of  his  mind,  which  to  others  were  concealed 
beneath  the  light  garment  of  wit  and  satire.  He  sent 
through  Herder  to  Wieland,  who  was  at  this  time  the 
editor  of  the  German  Mercury,  two  serious  essays  for 
that  publication.  In  this  instance,  as  all  through  life,  his 
success  was  decided  by  a  woman.  Herder  was  travelling 
in  Italy ;  but  the  peculiar  union,  not  only  of  heart,  but 
of  literary  pursuits,  that  existed  between  Herder  and  his 
accomplished  wife,  permitted  her  to  open  and  read  all  his 
literary  communications.  She  was  deeply  touched  and 
interested  by  Richter's  essay,  Was  der  Tod  est,  "  What 
is  Death  ?  "  and  this  was  an  introduction  to  a  friendship 
with  that  charming  woman  that  lasted  to  the  end  of  life. 
Richter  had  written :  "  These  two  essays  I  venture  not 
to  send  immediately  to  Herr  Wieland ;  they  might  be 
lost  in  the  caravan  of  paper  that  closes  around  him. 
Perhaps  they  will  gain  by  being  presented  by  you,  as 
disagreeable  news  are  mitigated  when  brought  to  a  king 
by  a  favorite  or  a  beloved  friend.  As  I  have  absolutely 
nothing,  and  hope  by  these  productions,  born  in  the  midst 
of  hypochondria,  heart-sinkuig,  and  vanishing  health,  to 
gain  something.  Might  you  only  find  them  worthy  to  be 
read  by  you  !  Might  you  through  their  merits  find  me 
worthy  to  have  read  yours." 

Madam  Herder  sent  the  essays  to  Wieland,  with  tlie 
request,  that  if  he  did  not  insert  them  in  the  Mercury,  to 
return  them  immediately  ;  but,  alas !  they  were  mislaid 
in  his  "  caravan  of  papers."  They  were  afterwards  sent 
back,  and  Madam  Herder  wrote  to  Richter :  "  As  my  hus- 
band is  more  in  connection  with  the  editor  of  the  German 
Museum,  I  have  to-day  sent  your  essays  to  him  ;  and  as 


l88  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

soon  as  I  receive  an  answer,  or  money,  I  will  immediately 
forward  it  to  you.  Your  second  piece.  Was  der  Tod  est, 
has  deeply  pleased  me.  I  had  nearly  placed  your  true 
name  at  the  bottom." 

The  editor  of  the  Museum  consented  to  print  the 
smallest  2:)iece,  on  Death,  but  sent  him  no  money.  Thus 
Richter's  ship,  freighted  with  hopes,  came  back  without 
the  expected  treasure,  but  with  one  more  valuable,  the 
friendship  of  the  Herders,  to  whom  he  was  never  after- 
wards a  stranger. 

Caroline  Herder  was  the  fu-st  of  the  German  female 
world  whose  heart  Jean  Paul  gained  through  a  poetic 
work  ;  and  that,  a  little  serious  essay.  This  was  the  first 
acknowledgment  he  received  of  warm  sympathy  in  his 
writings,  and  it  was  a  prophetic  assurance  that  from  the 
German  women  he  should  receive  through  life  the  richest 
reward  of  Fame.  It  could  not  fail  to  make  a  deep  im- 
pression upon  his  mind,  that  through  a  little  serious  and 
Earnest  work,  he  had  reached  in  a  moment  that  for  which 
he  had  been  striving  in  vain  through  so  many  years 
volumes  of  witty  satirical  essays. 

As  soon  as  Eichter  had  returned  from  To-  a.  d.  irsg, 
pen  to  his  mother's  residence  in  Hof,  he  showed,  -^t-  26. 
by  very  decided  stei)S,  the  change  that  had  taken  place  in 
his  opinions  and  feelings.  He  made  those  changes  in  his 
costume,  which  liis  friends  had  demanded  in  vain  for 
seven  years,  covering  his  throat  and  drawing  out  his  curls 
beliind  into  a  cue  ;  but,  as  lie  could  do  nothing  as  other 
people  did,  he  demonstrated  his  intentions  by  the  humor- 
ous advertisement  already  mentioned.  These  changes 
were  necessarj^,  perhaps,  to  ensure  his  reception  in  the 
polite  circles  of  Hof;  but  he  entered  with  avidity  also 
into  all  those  families  who  had  ever  been  friendly  to  his 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  189 

mother,  and  showed  a  desire  to  please  in  every  way  those 
to  whom  for  seven  years  he  would  not  make  the  sacrifice 
of  confining  the  natural  flow  of  his  hair.  This  sudden 
change  of  life  proves  that  the  plan  of  his  literary  works 
had  changed,  and  that  he  held  it  necessary,  at  any  price, 
to  study  men  and  character,  and  to  gain  a  deeper  knowl- 
edge of  the  human  heart ;  especially  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  thoughts,  impulses,  aspirations,  and  sor- 
rows of  that  sex  who  occupy  so  important  a.  place  in  his 
romances,  and  upon  whose  favor  he  depended  so  con- 
stantly in  after  life. 

This  was  not  difficult  for  one  with  such  gifts  as  he  pos- 
sessed, and  with  such  hearty  sympathy  in  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  others  ;  especially  endowed  as  he  was  with 
that  which  the  French  so  beautifully  call  poKtesse  du 
cceur,  which,  we  have  seen  by  his  book  of  Devotion,  was 
nourished  and  cultivated  as  sedulously  as  if  it  had  not 
been  the  natural  growth,  and  rooted  deeply  in  his  own 
virgin  soul.  It  was  easy,  therefore,  for  him  to  gain  ad- 
mittance to  a  number  of  cheerful  family  circles,  and  the 
inteiTourse  was  for  him  so  much  the  more  charming,  as 
he  soon  found  in  each  family  one  or  more  growing-up 
daughters,  who  discovered  for  his  higher  nature  a  sur- 
prising sympathy,  and  by  their  more  susceptible  imagina- 
tions attached  themselves  closely  to  him. 

Among  liis  best  friends  was  the  Postmistress  *  Wirth. 
And  to  show  the  friendliness  of  the  intercourse,  we  ex- 
tract a  note  to  her. 

"  I  am  reduced  to  the  choice  to  freeze  or  to  write  to 
you  ;  and  I  do  the  last.  We  put  off  the  purchase  of  wood 
until  to-day,  and  to-day  I  am  compelled,  for  want  of 

*  Women  in  Germany  take  the  titles  of  their  husbands,  as,  Sirs. 
Postmistress,  Mrs.  Doctoress,  Mrs.  Fastorin. 


190  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

money,  to  put  it  oiF  a  week  longer.  But  in  that  time,  I 
and  my  harpsichord-playing  fingers  must  be  frozen  unless 
you  send  me  counsel  or  wood.  It  would  be  well  for  us 
Hofers,  if  we  could  get  some  of  the  fire  which  we  shall 
have  too  warm  hereafter,  in  our  stoves  in  our  lifetime." 

The  mention  of  the  harpsichord-playing  fingers^  re- 
minds us  of  one  of  the  accomplishments  with  which  Paul 
made  himself  a  welcome  guest  in  every  society.  It  was 
his  first  recommendation  to  princely  circles,  and  has  taken 
deep  hold  upon  the  heart  and  memory  of  all  who  heard 
him.  He  played  never  from  written  or  printed  notes, 
but  fantasied,  as  the  inspiration  of  the  moment  and  the 
mood  of  his  feelings  dictated.  In  this  manner  he  poured 
out  all  the  emotions,  images,  and  dreams  of  his  soul, 
without  the  timidity  that  he  had  always  felt  at  expressing 
them  in  words,  and  excited  or  melted  his  hearers  with  his 
own  emotions.  "  Often,"  said  one  of  his  charmed  circle, 
"  when  we  had  collected  ourselves  about  him  in  the  twi- 
light, and  he  had  fantasied  on  the  piano  till  the  tears 
ran  over  all  our  faces,  and  from  emotion  Paul  could  play 
no  longer,  he  would  break  off  suddenly,  and  begin  the 
most  humorous  stories  of  his  future  life  ;  of  his  journeys, 
his  wife,  his  children  (which  were  always  three)  ;  then 
he  would  prophesy,  but  always  with  whimsical  effect, 
what  a  great  man  he  would  be, —  bow  people  would  come 
from  all  places  to  see  him,  and  princes  and  princesses 
would  envy  us  the  pleasure  of  his  society."  A  prophecy, 
how  improbable,  but  how  well  fulfilled ! 

Richter  had  not,  up  to  this  time,  found  a  publisher  for 
his  third  volume  of  Satires.  At  length  Beekman,  of 
Gera,  consented  to  bring  out  the  papers,  which  for  three 
years  had  been  journeying  around  in  vain  for  patron  or 
editor.    The  adverse  fortune  which  had  followed  the  book 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


191 


did  not  cease  now.  Paul  had  long  contention  with  the 
editor  about  the  form,  title,  and  price  of  the  manuscript. 
Beckman  wrote  that  he  never  would  print  a  book  whose 
title  did  not  please  the  public ;  that  he  printed  only  to 
sell,  and,  alas  !  he  knew  from  experience  that  the  best 
books  won  or  lost  through  their  titles,  and  proposed  for 
this  one.  Selections  from  Sir  Lucifer's  Papers.  With 
slight  alteration  Richter  consented,  and  the  book  was 
called  Selections  from  the  Papers  of  the  Devil. 


CHAPTER    X. 

elchter  takes  a   school  at  schwarzenbach.  —  method  of 
Instruction.  —  Female  Pupils  and  Friends. 


AD.  1790, 
Mt.  26. 


HILE  Richter  was  thus  hajipy  in 
the  circle  of  youthful  beings  he  had 
drawn  about  him,  whom  he  was  endeavoring 
to  instruct  and  elevate,  he  was  invited  by- 
many  persons  of  liigh  rank  to  enter  their  families  as  pri- 
vate instructor.  His  experience  at  Topen  forbade  him 
again  to  encounter  such  humiliation ;  but,  urged  by  his 
friends  Volkel,  Vogel,  and  the  magistrate  *  Cloter,  to  take 
charge  of  their  children,  he  consented  to  go  to  Scliwar- 
zenbach,  and  become,  as  he  says,  a  pedagogue  where  he 
had  first  been  a  school-boy.  He  had  at  first  a  small 
school  of  six  boys  and  one  girl,  between  the  ages  of  four- 
teen and  seven  ;  and  his  poetical  associations  were  excited 
at  the  thought  of  beginning  his  school  on  the  day  of  his 
birth,  the  21st  of  March.  Richter  wrote  to  Cloter, 
"  That  on  the  following  Monday,  his  allodial  and  feudal 
estate  might  be  transported  to  Schwarzeubach  in  a  child's 
go-cart.  Inform  both  friends,  that  about  the  pedagogue's 
wages  tliere  need  be  no  new  negotiation.  Tlicy  should 
both  pay  less  in  proportion  than  yourself.  Truly,  it  is 
much  easier  to  receive  presents  than  wages  from  friends." 


*^  Amtvei'walter,  the  magistrate  of  a  certain  district. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I93 

C'loter  answf  red  :  "  I  must  remind  you  of  one  of  the 
Sibylline  rules,  that  when  tiie  moon  is  waning  all  fortu- 
natt;  things  go  backwards,  and  that  JMonday  also  is  Kind- 
lein  day  (Innocents),  when  nothing  new  should  be  begun. 
Forget  not,  when  you  enter  your  dwelling,  to  make  three 
crosses,  and  place  the  right  foot  first.*  Besides,  on  Mon- 
day I  shall  have  no  horses  ;  and  to  bring  the  reverenc" 
theologian  with  oxen  in  a  chaise,  God  forbid !  that  will 
I  not." 

I  have  given  this  little  extract  that  the  reader  may 
have  a  glimpse  of  the  man  who  was  to  be  Richter's  future 
patron.  We  are  already  acquainted  with  Volkel  and  Vo- 
gel.  Cloter  was  a  man  ojjcn  and  honorable  in  word  and 
deed.  "  Where  he  gave  his  hand,  he  gave  his  heart,  and 
the  bond  lasted  as  long  as  life." 

There  was  need  of  neither  horse  nor  oxen  to  transport 
the  personal  property  of  our  hero.  He  wrote  to  Otto 
upon  his  removal:  "On  my  entrance  into  my  Schwarzen- 
bach  school  office,  I,  as  usual,  made  an  inventor}-  of  boots, 
stockings,  handkerchiefs,  and  a  couple  of  kreutzeis.  Out 
of  this  list,  failed  only  Nos.  1,  2,  3,  and  4.  I  have  noth- 
ing, but  I  hope  tliis  will  be  the  very  last  request.  I 
have  been  the  occasion  of  some  accidental  successes,  but 
friendship  is  perhaps  best  known  to  you  under  the  form 
of  favors,  and  with  Herman  died,  as  little  what  you  did 
for  him,  as  your  goodness  to  me  will  die  with  either  of 
us.  Besides,  thou  knowest  me,  and  thyself,  and  I  hope 
neither  the  doing  nor  the  forbearing  to  do,  the  refusing 
or  consenting  to  my  prayer,  can  ever  alter  our  relations 
or  our  opinions.     LebewoJd." 

The  reader  will  now  follow  Richter  to  Schwarzenbach, 

*  This  raillery  was  no  doubt  occasioned  by  Jean  Paul's  wishing  to 
enter  upon  his  new  duties  on  liis  birthday. 

9  M 


194  I^II'E    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  place  wliere,  in  childhood,  he  hungered  and  thirsted 
for  instruction,  and  where  first  the  dreams  of  future  fame 
hovered  over  the  friendless  bo3%*  This  last  winter  in 
riof  had  blown  its  icy  breath  of  cold  and  jioverty  into  the 
poor  apartment  of  his  mother ;  but  now,  in  the  spring,  it 
was  cheered  with  the  warmer  breeze  of  approachingvgood 
fortune.  At  this  time  his  biographer  says :  "  Whoever 
had  seen  him,  with  his  small  portion  of  worldly  posses- 
sions in  his  hand,  his  gray-green  woollen  coat,  and  that 
noble,  tender  countenance,  in  which  fate,  with  all  its 
blows,  had  left  no  scars ;  had  looked  into  his  beaming 
eyes,  and  said.  Steer  on,  courageous  Columbus  !  What 
thou,  with  prophetic  eye,  hast  looked  upon,  must  be  ! 
Only  a  few  more  heavy  years,  and  thou  shalt  hear  and 
see  the  land.  Above  the  blooming  hills  of  the  New 
World  the  sun  shall  rise  for  thee,  and  a  beam  will  pene- 
trate the  narrow,  dark  chamber  of  thy  poor  mother,  and 
will  be  to  her  the  light-beam  of  an  eternal  blessedness  ! " 

After  a  friendly  contest  with  Cloter,  who  insisted  that 
the  new  teacher  should  be  exclusively  his  guest,  it  was 
decided  that .  he  should  live  successively  with  each  of 
his  patrons,  changing  his  residence  every  quarter.  It 
is  pleasant  to  see  that  this  New  England  custom  has 
had  a  precedent  in  Germany.  After  a  few  weeks  Richter 
found  his  most  sanguine  hopes  of  contentment  and  happi- 
ness fulfilled. 

The  deep  and  marked  peculiarities  of  a  poetic  nature 
were  never  brought  into  fuller  exercise  than  by  Richter 
in  the  formation  and  government  of  his  little  school. 
That  which  is  usually  to  men  of  rich  endowments  a 
vexing  and  wearisome  employment,  the  daily  routine 
of   instruction    for   little    children   in    the    elements    of 

•  Spc  First  Part,  par;o  71. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  I95 

knowledge,  became  to  him  a  source  of  elevated  and 
ennobling  thought.  His  mode  of  instruction  was  the 
opposite  of  that  from  which  he  thought  he  had  him- 
self suffered.  In  his  little  school  there  was  no  learning 
by  heart,  no  committing  to  memory  the  thoughts  of 
others,  but  every  child  was  expected  to  use  its  own 
powers.  His  exertions  seem  mainly  directed  to  awaken 
in  the  children  a  reproducing  and  self-creating  power ; 
all  knowledge  was  therefore  the  material  out  of  which 
they  were  to  form  new  combinations.  In  a  word,  the 
whole  of  his  instruction  was  directed  to  create  a  desire 
for  self-study,  and  thus  lead  his  pupils  to  self-knowledge. 
He  aimed  to  bring  out,  as  much  as  possible,  the  talents 
that  God  had  given  his  pupils ;  and,  after  exciting  a  love 
of  knowledge,  he  left  them  to  a  free  choice  as  to  what 
they  would  study ;  but  their  zeal  and  emulation  were 
kept  alive  by  a  (so-called)  " red  book"  in  which  an  exact 
account  of  the  work  of  each  individual  was  recorded ;  this 
was  shown  to  parents  and  friends  at  the  end  of  the  quar- 
ter, and  so  great  was  their  zeal,  that  they  needed  a  rein 
rather  than  a  spur.  While  he  accustomed  the  children 
to  the  spontaneous  activity  of  all  their  faculties,  he  gave 
them  five  hours  a  day  of  direct  instruction,  in  which  he 
led  them  through  the  various  departments  of  human 
knowledge,  and  taught  them  to  connect  ideas  and  facts 
by  comparison  and  association.  From  the  kingdom  of 
plants  and  animals  he  ascended  to  the  stai-red  firmament, 
made  tliem  accjuainted  with  the  course  of  the  planets,  and 
led  their  imaginations  to  these  worlds  and  their  inhab- 
itants. Then  he  conducted  them  through  the  picture- 
gallery  of  the  past  history  of  nations,  and  placed  the 
heroes  and  saints  and  martyrs  of  antiquity  before  them, 
or  he  turned  their  attention  to  the  mystery  of  their  own 


196  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

souls  and  the  destiny  of  man.  Above  all,  and  with  all, 
he  directed  their  tender,  childish  hearts  to  a  Father  in 
Heaven.  He  said,  "  There  can  he  no  such  companion  to 
the  heart  of  children,  for  the  whole  of  life,  as  the  ever- 
present  thought  of  God  and  immortality." 

In  Levana,  his  work  upon  education,  Eichter  has^>given 
a  detailed  account  of  his  method  of  instruction  in  this 
little  school.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  it  was  more 
adapted  to  cultivate  a  poetic  nature,  to  form  authors  and 
literary  men,  than  active  and  practical  men  of  business. 
His  instructions  were  directed  almost  wholly  to  the  un- 
folding of  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  nature,  and  to 
forming  a  creative  imagination.  He  seems  to  have  been 
in  danger  of  forgetting  that  the  same  sun  that  opens  the 
tender  bud  may  close  it  forever.  A  wise  gardener  will 
take  care  that  a  too  powerful  heat  do  not  draw  up  from 
the  root  an  excess  of  the  vital  fluid,  and  injure  the  deli- 
cate 2>lant  forever. 

It  has  been  said  that  Richter's  method  of  instruction 
was  to  make  of  children,  so  diverse  in  age,  character,  and 
situation,  mei'cly  poets  and  literary  men  ;  —  that  he  sought 
to  reproduce  his  own  life  and  character  without  the  vari- 
ous hinderances  and  trials  that  he  encountered  in  his  self- 
education.  He  made  of  his  school  an  academy  of  poetry, 
sowing  his  own  individuality  under  different  forms,  and 
creating  only  little  Kichters  among  Ills  pupils.  He  called 
his  method  the  awaking  of  the  spiritual  nature  to  self- 
knowledge  and  self-instruction. 

These  four  years  at  Schwarzenbach  were  among  the 
happiest  of  Richter's  life.  The  parents  of  the  children 
were  his  wannest  friends,  and  his  whole  heart  was  en- 
gaged in  forming  the  characters  of  his  pupils.  He  wrote 
to  Otto,  "  that  his  school-room  was  his  Paradise,  his  Peru, 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  197 

his  Tenipe,  and  his  Prater."  Every  Sunday  he  walked 
to  Ilof,  and  spent  the  day  with  his  mother.  There  he 
always  found  a  party  of  young  female  friends  collected  to 
meet  htm,  who  was  the  soul  and  life  of  their  intercourse. 
A  heart  like  Richter's  could  not  remain  at  any  time  in- 
sensible to  female  influence.  The  tenderness  and  rever- 
ence with  which  he  always  speaks  of  the  sorrows  and  sen- 
sibility of  women  has  made  him  dear  to  every  woman's 
heart.  He  did  not  regard  them,  as  men  of  genius  are 
too  apt  to  do,  as  mere  playthings  for  the  flattery  of  an 
idle  hour,  or  solely  as  idols  of  the  imagination,  for  poets 
to  study  in  order  to  heighten  the  effect  of  their  own 
creations  :  he  strove  to  elevate  them  in  their  own  estima- 
tion, and  place  them  in  a  moral  and  intellectual  equality 
with  man,  and,  added  to  this,  was  all  the  tenderness  which 
led  him  to  say,  "  To  the  man  who  has  had  a  mother,  all 
women  are  sacred  for  her  sake." 

The  four  young  ladies  with  whom  Richter  lived  in 
confidential  friendship  appear  under  the  names  of  Caro- 
line, Helena,  Frederica  the  sister,  and  Amone,  who  after- 
wards married  his  friend  Otto.  He  encouraged  them  to 
write  to  him  upon  all  questions  of  taste  and  literature, 
ethics  or  religion,  that  they  found  difficulty  in  solving 
themselves  ;  and  he  fortified  the  resolution  or  soothed 
the  uneasiness  of  those  who  met  with  difficulties  of  any 
kind.  He,  indeed,  seems  to  have  held  the  double  office 
of  instructor  and  confessor.  His  intercourse  with  young 
women  was  also  a  l)enefit  to  liimself,  for  with  them  he 
was  obliged  to  soften  the  bitterness  of  his  satire,  or  to 
clothe  it  in  the  form  of  the  graces. 

It  may  seem  surprising  that,  placed  in  such  intimate 
relations  with  women  only  a  i^cw  years  younger  tlian  him- 
self, and  susceptible  as  he  had  always  been,  Richter  should 


198  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

have  felt  no  serious  jiassion.  At  this  time  he  wrote  a  prize 
essay  that  probably  defined  the  limits  of  his  friendship 
towards  his  young  disciples  :  "  How  far  friendship  towards 
the  other  sex  may  proceed  witliout  love,  and  what  is  tlie 
difference  between  that  and  love."  His  biographer  seems 
to  wish  to  persuade  himself  that  the  change  which ''took 
place  in  Jean  Paul  at  this  time  was  the  result  of  an  indi- 
\-idual  passion.  But  it  is  plain,  I  think,  from  his  journals, 
that  his  ideal  of  female  beauty  and  excellence,  the  object 
for  which  his  heart  beat  in  secret,  those  exquisite  crea- 
tions of  profound  feeling,  meekness,  and  love  which  he 
has  left  in  his  writings,  existed  not  yet  to  liim.  In  all 
his  strong  emotions,  in  the  torrent  of  his  deepest  feelings, 
Avhen  he  bathed  in  the  delight  of  a  summer  day,  or  when 
the  setting  sun  spread  over  him  rose-colored  and  golden 
clouds,  and  he  asked  for  a  second  lieai't  in  which  to  pour 
the  overflowing  emotions  of  his  own,  it  was  always  a 
female  heart.  In  his  journal  are  many  passages,  in 
which  he  dwells  upon  his  hopes  of  one  day  meeting  this 
idol  of  his  dreams. 

He  writes  :  "  I  ask  not  tlie  most  beautiful  person,  but 
for  the  most  beautiful  heart ;  in  that  I  can  overlook  blem- 
ishes, but  in  this,  none."  Even  when  his  spirit  was  filled 
with  universal  benevolence,  and  he  spread  out  liis  arms 
to  embrace  all  the  world,  a  small  voice  from  his  heart 
whispered,  that  among  a  thousand,  none  had  yet  been 
found  for  him.  He  writes  again  :  "  There  can  be  but  one 
beloved,  that  can  forget  all  for  thee,  and  give  thee  every 
minute,  every  glance,  every  joy,  eveiy  beating  of  the 
])idse,  and  say  to  thee :  '  We  have  chosen  each  other  from 
the  whole  world.  Thy  heart  is  mine,  mine  is  tliine,  thou, 
deeply,  deeply  loved  ! '  But,  beyond  the  clouds  of  earth 
and  the  grave,  a  time  will  come  when  we  shall  not  seek 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  199 

avariciously  among  the  best  a  better  for  ourselves,  but 
when  there  will  be  but  one,  supremely  loved,  that  is,  God, 
and  millions  loving  all  mankind. 

"  And  yet  thou !  that  in  this  dark,  cold  night  of  life 
remained  longest  with  me,  and  pressed  my  arm  upon  thy 
heart ;  yet,  if  I  should  meet  thine  eye  that  I  have  so 
loved,  if  I  should  see  again  all  that  here  so  drew  me  to 
thee,  ah,  I  should  fall  weeping  upon  thy  heart,  and  say : 
'  This  is  he  who  loved  me  upon  earth,  I  must  do  some- 
thing here  to  distinguish  thee  from  others.'  "  * 

There  was  said  to  be  a  certain  Caroline,  who  carried 
Richter  beyond  the  limits  between  friendship  and  love. 
It  was  not  her  extraordinary  beauty  that  fascinated  him, 
but  the  great  liveliness  of  all  her  sentiments  and  emo- 
tions. However,  this  dream  lasted  but  a  short  time ; 
with  the  spring  it  melted  away ;  and,  that  the  lady  her- 
self dissolved  it,  appears  from  an  entry  in  his  journal. 
"  /alone  must  repeat  in  solitude,  with  flowing  eyes,  Thou 
lovest  her  yet,  eternally,  eternally  !  "  His  letters  to  Caro- 
line differed  very  little  from  his  letters  to  his  other  young 
friends.  To  all  they  were  full  of  wise  counsel,  playful 
and  humorous  suggestions,  delicate  and  penetrating  sym- 
pathy with  sorrows,  only  betrayed  in  hints  and  whispers. 
He  wrote  for  them  fables ;  imaginary  journeys  all  over 
the  world,  to  teach  them  the  customs  of  foreign  countries  ; 
a  fanciful  history  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  moon  ;  dreams, 
in  which  he  veiled  the  most  delicate  hints  and  instruc- 
tions ;  and  to  one  of  his  young  friends,  who  wished  for 
some  assurance  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  he  sent 
an  "  Essay  upon  the  Continuance  of  the  Soul,  and  its  Con- 
sciousness," which  contains  the  foundation  and  outline  of 
the  Campaner  Thai. 

*  Richter  refers  here  to  his  friend  Herman. 


200  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

To  another  he  wrote,  on  her  birthday :  "  The  soul  cele- 
brates at  every  good  deed  a  birthday.  In  your  letter  1 
rejoice  at  your  joy  over  a  quiet  day.  Men  are  made  to 
be  etei*nally  shaken  about,  but  women  are  flowers  that 
lose  their  beautiful  colors  in  the  noise  and  tumult  of  life. 
Since  a  year  and  a  half  it  has  been  my  principle  ^or 
your  sex  are  judged  by  the  suspicion  of  men  or  the 
hatred  of  women)  to  think  better  of  every  woman  than 

any  would  think  of  her  except  her  lover Let  the 

reward  of  virtue  be  the  continuance  of  virtue." 

It  should  be  remembered,  in  reading  the  next  extract, 
that  Richter  was  writing  for  the  young  women  who  lived 
in  the  region  of  the  Fichtelgebirge,  where,  we  have  learnt 
from  the  Introduction,  the  females  bore  the  burden  of 
life ;  and  before  Paul  had  diffused  more  liberal  ideas 
upon  the  education  of  the  daughters  of  families,  they 
received  little  intellectual  instruction,  and  were  scarcely 
regarded  as  the  equals  of  man.  He  is  speaking  of  a 
young  bride  he  had  met  in  one  of  his  rambles,  returning 
to  her  husband's  home,  and  was  invited  to  take  a  seat  in 
the  vis-a-vis. 

"  I  and  the  sun  were  opposite  Pauline,  and  looked  into 
lier  face  with  equal  warmth  ;  and  at  last  I  was  touched 
by  the  sight  of  her  patient,  quiet  figure.  Why  was  it  ? 
Not  that  I  reflected  upon  the  common  Hernhuttish  mar- 
riage lot-drawing  of  women,  for  at  a  certain  age  tliey 
have  more  feeling  than  knowledge,  and  in  their  empty 
hearts  there  is  a  fire  for  the  sacrifice,  but  no  God,  as  in 
the  virgin  temple  of  Vesta  there  was  no  image,  but  only 
fire,  and  at  the^rs^  appearance  of  any  divinity  the  altar 
was  consecrated  to  him.  My  emotion  did  not  come  from 
the  thought  that  she,  like  most  of  her  sisters,  like  tender 
berries,  were  plucked  from  the  stem  and  crushed  in  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  20I 

rough  hand  of  man  ;  or  that  her  female  spring  had  so 
many  cdoiids  and  so  few  flowery  days  ;  or  that  I  compared 
her,  as  many  other  hrides,  to  the  sleeping  cliild  that  Gara- 
fola  has  painted,  with  an  angel  holding  over  it  a  crown 
of  thorns,  that  marriage,  like  the  angel,  would  awake  by 
pressing  the  thorns  upon  her  brow.  But  it  made  my 
soul  tender,  when  I  looked  in  this  sweet,  contented  face, 
blooming  with  red  and  white  roses,  and  thought  witliin 
myself,  O,  be  not  so  joyful,  poor  sacrifice  !  Thou  knowest 
not  that  thy  gentle  heart  needs  something  warmer  than 
blood,  and  thy  head  better  dreams  than  the  {)illow  can 
bring  it;  that  the  perfumed  flower-leaves  of  thy  youth 
must  soon  be  drawn  together  to  form  the  scentless  calix- 
leaves  to  protect  the  honey-cup  for  thy  husband,  who  will 
soon  demand  of  thee  neither  tenderness  nor  a  light  heart, 
but  only  rough,  working  fingers,  feet  never  weary,  labor- 
ing arms,  and  a  quiet,  paralytic  tongue.  This  far,  wide- 
speaking  vault  of  the  eternal,  the  blue  rotunda  of  the 
universe,  will  shrink  up  to  be  thy  housewifery  apartment, 
thy  fuel-chamber  and  spinning-house,  and  in  thy  happiest 
days  only  a  visiting  apartment.  The  sun  will  be  for  thee 
only  a  hanging  balloon-stove,  a  room-heater  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  the  moon  but  a  cobbler's  rushlight  upon  the  can- 
dlestick of  a  cloud.  The  Rhine  will  shrink  into  a  pool 
and  rinsing  kettle,  to  whiten  thy  household  linen,  and  the 

ocean  be  only  a  herring-pond Thou  wert  created 

for  something  better,  but  that  thou  wilt  not  be ;  and  so, 
thy  leaves  stripped  away  by  years,  and  all  thy  sweet  buds 
dried  up  and  faded,  death  will  first  transplant  thee  to  a 
more  congenial  climate. 

"  Wherefore  should  not  this  trouble  me  ?    Do  I  not 
see  every  week  how  souls  are  sacrificed  as  soon  as  they 
inhabit  a  female  body  ?    K,  then,  the  richest  and  most 
9* 


202  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

gifted  souls,  in  the  morning  glow  of  life,  with  hearts  un- 
requited, wishes  denied,  are  in  a  single  position  disdained 
by  society,  what  wonder  if  they  sink  into  the  sheltered 
citizenship  of  marriage  ?  They  think  themselves  happy, 
if  by  this  they  escape  ^  thousand  signs  of  forgetfulness ; 
and  if  the  husband  is  a  gentle  jailer,  who  could  tame  \he 
Bastile  prisoner,  the  poor  soul  feels  her  lot  supremely 
happy.  The  golden  mornings  and  enchanted  castles  of 
her  eai'lier  years  fade,  and  fall  unremarked.  Her  sun 
descends,  unseen,  by  slow  degrees,  over  her  clouded  and 
earthly  day,  and  amid  pain  and  duty  the  twilight  of  even- 
ing shrouds  her  humble  existence  ;  she  has  never  expe- 
rienced all  that  she  was  worthy  of,  and  in  age  she  has 
forgotten  all  that  the  morning  glow  of  life  promised. 
Sometimes,  when  a  long-buried  idol  of  her  once  devout 
heart,  or  melancholy  music,  or  a  book,  throws  upon  the 
■winter  sleep  of  her  heart  a  warm  sunbeam,  she  starts  and 
looks  around,  and  says,  '  Formerly  was  it  diflferent  with 
me  ;  but  it  is  long  since,  and  I  believe  at  that  time  I  might 
have  erred,'  and  she  sleeps  again. 

"  Truly,  parents  and  husbands,  I  draw  this  picture,  not 
to  press  from  the  wounded  hearts  who  recognize  their 
own  likeness  another  tear ;  but  I  represent  these  pic- 
tured wounds,  that  you  may  heal  the  real,  and  throw  away 
forever  your  instruments  of  torture." 

A  letter  to  Helena  follows,  from  which  I  give  a  short 
extract. 

"  I  would  in  this  foolish  letter  repeat  our  late  conver- 
sation. I  will  take  the  liberty  to  call  you  the  Democrat, 
as  you  would  be  the  protecting  goddess  of  the  freedom  of 
women  ;  and  I  will  take  the  title  with  which  I  was  once 
baptized  at  your  house,  that  of  Chaplain.  We  will  make 
believe  that  we  were  following  the  Democrat  and   the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  203 

Chaplain,  and  listening  to  their  conversation  as  they 
walked  to  Krotenhof. 

"  The  dear  good  Democrat  says  :  '  Can  a  maiden,  who 
has  preserved  this  name  till  old  age,  deserve  every  satiri- 
cal aiTow  that  is  aimed  at  her  from  mouths  and  book- 
shelves, because  she  does  not  wish  for  fetters,  or  suffer 
them  to  be  drawn  on  ? ' 

"  The  Chajjlain  answered  :  '  In  fact,  we  all,  or  none,  de- 
serve satii*e,  for  we  have  all  more  follies  than  hairs.  But 
how  will  your  good  nun  defend  herself?' 

"  '  With  everything,'  (and  the  Democrat  shaded  herself 
with  her  parasol,  as  the  sun  with  an  evening  cloud.) 
'  Ah,  in  the  female  heart  envious  eyes  too  often  look,  and 
too  rarely  the  indulgent !  Pitying  eyes  would  there  find 
wounds  that  are  every  day  cut  deeper,  and  a  world  of 
stifled  sighs.  But  upon, the  female  soul,  as  well  as  the 
female  body,  is  bound  an  eternal  corset.  We  go  from 
chain  to  chain  — ' 

" '  Suffer  me  to  finish  the  picture,  for  so  far  it  is  true. 
Yes,  you  are  right,  —  prejudices,  that  are  flowers  for  us, 
are  thistles  for  you.  Your  teachers,  your  companions, 
and  often  even  your  parents,  trample  upon  and  crush  the 
little  flowers  that  you  have  sheltered  and  cherished. 
Your  hands  are  more  employed  than  your  heads.  You 
ai^  only  allowed  to  play  with  your  fans,  —  and  nothing  is 
pardoned  you  ;  at  the  least  —  a  heart ! 

" '  Who,  then,  wouM  be  severe  and  satirical,  if  a  being 
so  opprest,  so  entangled  in  chains,  has  not  the  courage 
to  deliver  all  she  possesses,  tliat  best  and  tenderest  treas- 
ure, her  heart,  into  manly  hands  of  which  she  knows 
nothing,  —  knows  not  whether  he  will  warm  or  oppress  ; 
cherish  or  torture  the  gift !  What  upon  this  earth  can  be 
more  dangerous  than  to  make  an  election  that  can  never 


204  LIFE   OF  JEAN  PAUL. 

be  changed,  and  whose  good  or  evil  goes  on  increasing 
continually  to  the  last  day  of  life  ?  May  she  not  justify 
herself  in  avoiding  this  election,  if  she  sees  stretching 
out  before  her  a  charming,  unfettered  life,  among  female 
friends,  with  light  duties,  and  the  pleasures  of  youth  ever 
renewed  ? ' 

" '  Complete  your  picture,'  said  the  Chaplain  ;  '  and  do 
not  forget,  that  perhaps  there  may  have  been  one,  upon 
whose  arm  you  could,  nevertheless,  have  passed  through 
the  thorns  of  life,  but  that  he  is  eternally  parted  from  you, 
and  perhaps  buried  beneath  these  thorns.  In  certain 
years,  it  is  difficult  to  forget  what  we  have  loved,  and 
more  difficult  to  replace  it.  The  lacerated  heart  retreats 
into  its  solitary  cell,  and  seeks,  at  most,  only  female 
friends.' 

"  '  You  are,  then,  of  my  opinion  ?  '  said  the  Democrat. 

"  '  God  forbid  ! ' 

"  Both  now  stood  upon  a  height  where  they  could  look 
towards  Krotenhof.  The  Chaplain  opened  his  arms,  and 
cried  out,  '  Is  there  in  the  w'ide  world  one  w-ho  would  be 
Chaplainin  ?  Here  stands  the  Chaplain !  —  But,  seriously, 
I  have  a  hundred  reasons  to  give  you.  In  your  opinion, 
the  best  maidens  crook  the  finger,  when  asked  to  put  on 
the  marriage  ring.  But  we  will  follow  tliese  best  maid- 
ens into  their  sixtieth  year,  and  see  how  it  is  with  them 
then,  without  the  marriage  ring.  "We  find  them  solitary, 
unknown,  without  friends,  except  those  who  would  live  in 
their  testaments,  but  not  in  their  hearts  ;  without  friends, 
for  those  wlio  were  their  friends  in  the  summer  years  of 
youth,  liave  taken  back  their  hearts,  and  given  them  to 
their  husbands  and  children.  She  has  now  no  one  that 
she  can  love  ;  instead  of  a  husband,  only  a  favorite  cat  to 
torment,  that  is  not  half  as  faithful  as  a  husband  ;  and  in- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  205 

stead  of  children  she  educates  canaiy-birds.  Instead  of 
the  inexpressibly  sweet  duty  of  a  mother,  who,  like  God, 
educates  little  Adams  and  Ev^es  ;  and  the  sweet  employ- 
ment of  a  good  housewife,  who  takes  from  her  husband 
all  his  cares  and  wrinkles,  she  has  merely  the  duty  to 
love  or  hate  herself;  to  cherish  her  ennui  and  her  great 
prayer-book,  and  on  festivals  to  eat  alone.  In  the  long 
winter  evenings  she  has  no  one  but  her  maid  to  whom 

she  can  recount  the  joys  of  her  youth The  good 

maiden  thought,  forsooth,  she  should  remain  her  whole 
life  long  only  seventeen  years  old  ;  her  young  friends  are 
now  all  scattered  far  from  her,  upon  diflferent  heights,  and 
for  tliirty  years  she  has  had  nothing  youthful  near  her, — 
and  she  will  die  alone,  perhaps  not  missed.' 

"  '  She  will  be  regretted  by  the  poor,  to  whom  she  gave 
bread,  and  missed  by  the  children  to  whom  she  gave  edu- 
cation.' 

" '  Educating  poor  children  is  like  a  bright-colored 
May-dream.  It  is  as  though  I  should  see  my  children 
confessing  to  another,  and  myself  seek  complete  strangers 
to  absolve.  If  a  man,  that  has  all  the  world  upon  his 
shoulders,  books  to  write,  journeys  about  the  world, 
protocols,  sermons,  conquests  to  make,  and  no  time  to 
woo,  can  scarcely  be  excused  from  marrying,  how  can  a 
woman,  who  has  more  time  to  betroth  herself,  and  first  at 
the  altar  receives  her  crown  and  sceptre,  her  power  to 
rule,  and  confer  happiness  ?  —  But  here  we  are  at  the  end 
of  our  walk,  and  I  will  send  you  a  written  contradiction 
and  confutation.' " 

I  have  dwelt  thus  long  upon  this  part  of  Paul's  life 
because  it  was  the  season  when  he  passed  through  those 
moral  conflicts  that  resulted  in  a  deep  spiritual  faith,  and 
in  love  and  devotion.      His  whole   nature  acquired  an 


2o6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

earnest  direction,  and  his  works  were  henceforth  created 
to  elevate  in  happiness,  to  soothe  and  cheer  in  sorrow. 
Satire  remained  among  his  lighter  weapons,  but  he  took 
from  it  the  bitterness  of  scorn,  and  henceforth  his  vinegar 
was  made  of  honey. 

These  assertions  are  established  by  a  remarkable  pas- 
sage in  his  journal  of  this  year  (November  15,  1790). 
He  calls  it  "  the  weightiest  evening  of  my  life,  for  I  re- 
ceived the  thought  of  death.  I  looked  through  thirty 
years,  and  saw  myself  on  my  death-bed.  That  last  dre<im- 
night  will  come  !  And  because  thirty  years  are  as  certain 
to  terminate  as  one  day,  I  will  now  take  leave  of  the  earth 
and  its  heaven  !  My  plans  and  wishes  shall  now  fold 
their  wings.  My  heart,  as  it  does  not  yet  rest  under  the 
feet  of  strangers,  may  beat  on  a  friendly  bosom  ;  my  senses 
may  yet,  ere  six  boards  enclose  them,  seize  a  few  flutter- 
ing joys  on  their  short  passage  to  the  grave,  —  but  I  value 
them  no  more.  And  you,  my  brothers  !  I  will  love  you 
more ;  I  will  create  for  you  more  joys  !  Giving  up  my 
great  plans,  I  will  limit  my  exertions  to  making  you 
cheerful,  and  direct  my  comic  power  no  longer,  as  hith- 
erto, to  torment  you." 


CHAPTER    XI. 


Eichter's  first  serious  Work.  — "  The  Little  Schoolmaster 
Wuz." — "The  Invisible  Lodge."  —  First  Success.  —  Sab- 
bath Weeks  OF  Life. —  "Hesperus." 


must  not  be  supposed  that  by  a.  d.  1791 
Richter's  devotion  to  his  young  ^t.  28. 
female  friends  all  other  friendships  were  ex- 
yj  eluded.  His  intimacy  with  Christian  Otto, 
as  already  mentioned,  began  soon  after  his  return  from 
Leipzig ;  but  in  1790  they  began  a  daily  correspondence, 
that  lasted  uninterruptedly  for  fourteen  years,  after  which 
they  were  both  established  in  the  same  city.  Beside  this, 
they  met  every  week  between  Schwarzenbach  and  Hof, 
when  Otto  accompanied  his  friend  back.  Richter  said  to 
him,  "  I  pray  thee  to  be  my  public,  my  reading  world,  my 
critic,  my  reviewer " ;  and  henceforth  Otto  filled  these 
offices.  Richter  wanted  such  a  friend,  and  chose  Otto  to 
fill  the  place.  He  seems  to  have  exercised  upon  him 
a  magnetic  power,  such  as  in  his  sixtieth  year  he  was 
able  to  exercise  upon  young  and  powerful  natures  merely 
through  the  force  of  his  will.  When  Richter  looked  at 
Otto  with  lightning  eyes,  but  at  the  same  time  filled  with 
love,  Otto's  fate  was  decided  for  life  ;  there  was  nothing 
more  in  the  world  for  him,  he  lived  in  and  through  his 
friend.     He  was  the  person  that  Paul  needed  to  listen  to 


2o8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

his  literary  plans,  to  receive  and  answer  liis  letters,  to  be 
the  depositary  of  his  inward  and  outward  life.  Otto  was 
the  first  who  whispered  that  applause  which  was  after- 
wards echoed  by  the  literary  public.  He  was  also  a 
severe  and  faithful  critic,  and  Richter  for  some  years 
adopted  his  suggestions,  and  made,  with  admirable  ^do- 
cility, the  changes  in  his  works  that  Otto  advised. 

The  relation  between  Richter  and  Otto  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkaljle  tliat  the  history  of  literary  men  has  made 
known.  Ouly  a  less  gifted  nature  could  have  given  him- 
self up  to  another,  and  have  submitted  to  the  sacrifices 
that  Otto  made  to  Richter.  But  he  was  no  Boswell ;  he 
possessed  the  noblest  qualities,  and  was  inferior  to  Richter 
only  in  genius.  He  seems  to  bave  loved  and  reverenced 
his  friend  with  the  disinterested  devotion  of  a  woman ; 
and  he  had  to  suffer  many  of  the  mortifications  that 
attend  a  female  nature  in  connection  with  a  man  of 
genius.  For  if  Richter  was  blinded  for  a  moment  by 
the  splendor  of  higher  acquaintances.  Otto  felt  himself 
forgotten,  and  suffered  all  the  bitterness  of  jealousy. 
Even  the  blessedness  of  calling  such  a  man  his  own 
was  purchased  with  the  sacrifice  of  much  that  a  woman 
gives  up  to  a  beloved  object,  and  with  the  misery  that  a 
woman  feels  after  she  has  learnt  to  know  her  spiritual 
wants,  and  is  thrust  back  into  common  life.  Otto's  hu- 
mility was  as  remarkable  as  his  elevation.  He  never 
even  drew  a  reflected  light  upon  himself,  but  was  content 
to  enjoy  in  secret  the  consciousness  of  influencing  a  man 
like  Richter;  and  was  great  enough  to  owe  nothing  ia 
the  siglit  of  the  world  to  him.  It  was  only  after  the 
death  of  both  that  the  publication  of  their  correspondence 
revealed  tlieir  relations  to  each  other,  and  the  outbreak- 
ing pain  and  jealousy  of  Otto  over  what  he  imagined  the 
occasional  coldness  of  Richter. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  209 

Almost  tlie  first  production  upon  which  Otto  was  called 
to  exercise  his  new  office  of  critic  was  the  "  History  of 
the  Contented  Little  Schoolmaster,  Maria  Wuz."  Richter 
had  the  modesty  to  call  it  an  Idyl,  the  lowest  species  of 
poetic  creation.  Wuz  is  remarkable  as  being  the  first 
of  his  comjiositions  to  which  he  lent  his  own  life.  The 
childhood  of  Wuz  is  but  a  poetical  representation  of  his 
own.  Its  exquisite  humor  consists  in  the  delightful  vanity 
and  self-satisfaction  of  a  limited  being  in  limited  cii'cum- 
stances.  It  is  also  remarkable  as  the  transition  from  the 
satirical  works  to  those  of  an  earnest  and  sentimental 
nature,  or,  as  Paul  calls  it,  "  The  bridge  over  which  he 
passed  from  the  vinegar  fabric  where  he  had  worked 
nineteen  years,  when  he  closed  the  door  to  satire,  and 
opened  it  to  all  that  loved  and  rejoiced  and  wept  with 
human  nature." 

In  1819  Richter  wrote  thus  of  this  transition.  Speak- 
ing in  the  third  person,  he  says :  "  In  liis  nineteenth  year 
he  made  satirical  sketches,  and  then  nine  years  longer  he 
worked  in  his  vinegar  manufactory ;  but  at  last,  in  De- 
cember, 1790,  tlirough  the  somewhat  honey-sour  'Life 
of  the  Little  Schoolmaster  Wuz,'  he  took  the  blessed  step 
over  into  the  Invisible  Lodge*     A  long  oppressed,  over- 

*  I  have  since  learned  that  the  Lilth  Schoolmaster  Wuz  was  not  the 
Jirst  effort  of  Jean  Paul  in  the  form  of  narrative.  He  had  written,  be- 
fore this,  the  diverting  description  of  a  pedantic  School  Rector,  on  a 
journey  of  pleasure  with  his  Primaners,  continuing  their  lessons  all 
through  the  beautiful  June  days,  dosing  them  with  Latin  when  they 
rested  at  the  inns,  studying  the  maps  of  other  countries,  instead  of 
observing  the  places  they  passed  through,  and  turning  back  before 
they  had  reached  the  object  of  their  journey.  This,  together  with 
Freudds  Klaglibdl  iiber  seinem  Verflitchten  Damon,  were  omitted  in 
the  first  collected  edition  of  his  works.  I  was  ignorant  of  them,  till  I 
learned  their  existence  from  Spazier's  Biographical  Commentary,  a  book 
to  which  I  have  been  much  indebted  in  the  latter  part  of  this  work. 


210  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

full  heart  preserves  more  of  moderate  and  just  equality 
in  its  flood  than  one  always  left  open,  for  the  ebb  of  the 
last  must  make  a  spring  fountain  requisite  for  the  next 
book  fair. 

"  The  blossoms  of  large  trees  tliat  have  long  been 
growing  are  small,  and  have  usually  only  two  sipple 
colors,  white  and  red,  innocence  and  shame  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, flowers  on  quick-growing,  slender  stems  ai'e  broader 
and  fuller,  and  ornamented  with  many  glaring  colors." 

Otto's  approbation  of  the  Contented  Schoolmaster  en- 
couraged Richter  to  go  on  to  the  production  of  a  serious 
romance.  Wuz  was  finished  March  2d,  and  the  Invisible 
Lodge  begun  March  loth.  Paul  called  it  his  Pedagogical 
Romance,  and  it  is  based  on  his  own  experience  in  teach- 
ing. The  plan  of  education  in  the  Invisible  Lodge  is  the 
same  pursued  by  Richter  with  his  own  pupils.  It  con- 
sists in  not  exciting  too  early  the  warmth  of  emotion,  but 
through  mathematics  and  philosophy  forming  the  under- 
standing to  self-activity  and  leading  the  fancy  to  wit ; 
thus  protecting  the  pupil  from  those  moral  errors,  which 
are  the  fruit  of  a  too  early  excited  imagination. 

Gustavus,  in  consequence  of  his  Moravian  and  secluded 
youth,  was  brought  too  late  into  the  hands  of  such  a 
teacher  to  escape  a  moral  fall.  While  Richter  asserts 
that  a  too  early  excited  imagination  leads  a  man  into 
moral  errors,  he  also  asserts  that  it  preserves  the  higher 
female  nature,  raises  it  above  temptation,  and  gives  it  a 
strength  to  contend  with  difficulties,  before  which  the 
weaker  physical  nature  of  woman  is  vanquished.  Thus, 
wliilc  Gustavus  yields  to,  Beate  is  victorious  over  temp- 
tation. Beate  is  but  a  passing  shadow  of  those  women, 
made  up  of  light  and  delicately-touched  lines,  that  Jean 
Paul,  with  all  the  glow   of  fancy,  delighted,  as   in  his 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  2II 

Lia7ia,  to  paint  with  high,  pure  souls,  frail,  almost  dis- 
solving and  transparent  bodies  ;  beautiful  materials  for 
poetry,  but  too  ethereal  for  human  nature's  daily  food. 

Tlie  other  characters  in  this  romance  are  made  up  from 
the  limited  number  of  the  author's  acquaintance,  and  he 
has  worked  tliem  in  with  wonderful  skill.  Roper  and  his 
wife  represent  the  Oerthelshen  marned  pair  ;  Amatidus, 
his  sick  and  dying  friend  Adam  von  Oerthel  ;  and  Dr. 
Fenk  is  a  modification  of  Herman,  destitute,  however,  of 
the  singular  personal  beauty  of  his  friend.  In  the  princi- 
pal characters,  Richter  has  not  only  expressed  his  own 
thoughts  and  sentiments,  but  his  individual  experiences, 
his  recollections,  and  the  diiferent  epochs  of  tlie  history 
of  his  soul  are  embodied  in  them.  To  Ottoman  he  has 
given  his  dreams  and  aspirations  ;  to  Fenh,  his  satire  and 
comic  humor ;  and  in  Gustavus,  the  events  of  his  auto- 
biography are  clothed  in  a  poetic  garment.  We  feel  that 
these  three  characters,  though  with  different  forms  of 
expression,  compose  one  and  the  same  being.  Great  as 
appears  to  us  the  result  gained  by  the  creation  of  the 
Unsichtbare  Loge,  the  history  and  analysis  of  all  his 
romances  become  more  significant  and  interesting  through 
this  one.  It  is  the  birth-history  of  all  his  poesy,  and  con- 
tains not  merely  a  succession  of  unfoldings  and  characters 
for  his  later  romances,  but  it  is  the  poetic  ground  for  all, 
the  seed-bed  for  all  the  unfoldings  of  his  future  works. 

The  poverty  of  characters  in  Jean  Paul's  novels  is  the 
reason  of  his  breaking  the  narrative  with  what  he  calls 
extra  leaves.  The  richness  of  his  ideas,  and  his  poetic 
illustration,  were  in  such  disproportion  to  his  invention  of 
fable  and  character,  that  the  canvas  was  not  broad  enough 
to  take  up  all  of  which  his  mind  was  full.  It  was  not 
affectation,  therefore,  that  induced  the  insertion  of  these 
extra  leaves,  but  a  superabundance  of  tliought. 


212  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

When  Richter  sent  his  manuscript  to  Otto,  he  Avrotc 
with  fear  and  trembling :  "  The  birth-pangs  of  my  ro- 
mance are  over.  Think  of  my  disadvantageous  situation 
as  a  romance  writer,  that  I  can  avail  myself  of  so  few 
living  characters  as  models,  that  I  have  never  seen  the 
higher  ranks  of  life,  —  and  be  lenient." 

But  how  should  he  obtain  a  printer  ?  Providence 
seemed  to  lead  him  to  send  his  manuscript  to  the  Hof- 
rath  *  Moritz,  who  had  great  influence  with  a  bookseller 
in  Berlin,  whose  daughter  he  was  on  the  eve  of  marrying. 
Happy  was  it  indeed  for  Richter,  that  the  man  to  whom 
he  turned  was,  in  ripe  age,  for  the  first  time  loving  deeply, 
and  exactly  in  a  situation  to  be  touched  by  the  earnest 
and  sentimental  gifts  of  Paul's  imagination.  Richter 
wrote  thus  :  "  I  would  that  you  had  already  finished  this 
page,  that  I  might  not  blush  at  your  astonishment  at  the 
sight  of  these  volumes.  The  dai-k  canvas  enfolds,  like 
the  life  of  man,  joys,  sorrows,  and  a  half-executed  plan  ; 
in  short,  a  romance.  If  you  find,  after  reading,  that  it  is 
worthy  to  be  read  by  the  few  like  you,  I  pray  you  to 
reach  it  a  mercantile  helping  hand,  that  it  may  be  raised 
from  the  written  to  the  ))rinte(l  world." 

Moritz,  who  was  in  the  liabit  of  receiving  such  presents, 
frowned,  and  threw  it  aside  witli  an  Ah  !  but  as  he  read 
the  first  lines  of  Richter's  letter,  his  brow  cleared,  and 
when  he  reached  the  end,  there  was  no  longer  a  fold  to 
be  seen  on  his  face.  As  he  read  some  pages  of  the  man- 
uscript, he  cried  out,  "  This  is  no  unknow7i  writer.  It  is 
Goethe,  Herder,  or  Wieland  ! "  but  as  he  went  on,  he 
repeatedly  exclaimed,  "  tliat  he  could  not  understand 
it,  —  it  was  above  Goethe,  —  it  was  something  wholly 
new  ! " 

*  Counsellor. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  213 

We  can  imagine  Richter's  delight  on  returning  from  a 
little  pedestrian  journey,  to  find  such  a  letter  as  this  : 
"  Suffer  me  to  tell  you  what  has  delighted  me  in  your 
work,  and  were  you  at  the  end  of  the  earth  I  would  en- 
counter a  hundred  storms  to  fly  to  tell  you  !  Where  do 
}ou  dwell ?  How  are  you  called ?  Who  are  you  ? *  Your 
work  is  a  jewel !  "  &c. 

Moritz  wrote  again  immediately  after  the  book  was 
printed,  and  sent  thirty  of  the  hundred  ducats  t  the 
printer  gave  for  the  work. 

The  heart  of  Richter  opened  immediately  to  such  a 
friend,  and  went  forth  to  meet  him  in  all  the  confidence 
of  love  ;  but  the  whole  fulness  of  his  joy  and  success  was 
poured  out  for  his  mother,  who  needed  indeed  this  balsam 
of  filial  love.  The  moment  he  received  the  thirty  ducats 
he  set  out  to  walk  from  Schwarzenbach  to  Hof.  On  the 
way,  by  the  light  of  the  stars,  he  thought  of  his  mother's 
astonishment,  her  joy,  and  her  pious  gratitude  to  Heaven, 
and,  entering  late  at  night  the  low  apartment  where  she 
sat  spinning  by  the  light  of  the  fii'e,  he  poured  the  whole 
golden  treasui-e  into  her  lap. 

Whoever  has  read  the  numerous  passages  in  Richter's 
works,  where  he  describes  the  joy  of  soothing  the  dark 
years  of  aged  sorrow,  and  lightening  the  debt  which  every 
child  contracts  at  birth  to  its  mother,  will  follow  him  in 
sympathizing  joy  on  this  evening,  never  to  be  forgotten, 
when  he  transferred  the  first  reward  of  jiersevering  in- 
dustry to  the  hands  of  his  mother. 

The  unexpected  success  of  his  romance,  lifting  him  as 
it  were  at  once  into  fame,  made  no  difference  in  the 
simple  and  unostentatious  life   of  Richter.     He   imme- 

*  Ricliter  did  not  publish  yet  under  his  own  name, 
t  About  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  dollars. 


214  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

diately  began  his  second  romance,  The  Hesperus,  working 
unweariedly  at  it  before  and  after  school. 

In  the  sprhig  of  1794,  his  two  eldest  pnpils  entered  the 
Gymnasium  at  Bayreuth,  and  he  returned  to  his  mother 
in  Hof.  His  first  care  had  been,  as  soon  as  a  better 
prospect  0])ened  before  him,  to  take  his  mother  from^the 
miserable  little  apartment  she  had  occupied  behind  the 
parish  church  in  Hof,  and  place  her  in  a  more  cheerful, 
but  still  humble  and  modest  dwelling,  near  his  friend, 
Chi'istian  Otto.  His  next  care  was  to  fulfil  a  duty  of 
gratitude,  by  repaying  to  his  old  instructor,  Werner,  a 
sum  he  had  lent  to  his  mother.  I  insert  the  answer  of 
the  aged  man. 

"  "Wholly  unexpected  was  your  letter  to  me ;  and  yet, 
if  possible,  the  enclosure  was  more  so.  Be  assured  I  was 
touched  by  it,  even  to  shedding  tears,  and  that  it  will  re- 
main forever  unforgotten  !  It  is  to  me  a  new  proof  of  a 
Divine  Providence,  a  new  expression  of  your  noble  way 
of  thinking  and  acting. 

"  I  sat  in  the  window,  deeply  sunk,  in  consequence  of 
the  sad  times,  in  anxiety  for  the  support  of  my  family, 
when  your  letter,  heavy  with  money,  of  which  I  was 
wholly  destitute,  was  brought  in.  Certainly  it  was  won- 
derful !  and  that,  in  the  midst  of  so  much  employment 
you  should  remember  me,  a  poor  old  schoolmaster ; 
should  be  my  friend,  and  wish  me  so  much  good;  and 
that  the  little  I  once  afforded  your  poor  motlier,  that  I 
had  long  since  forgotten,  should  be  again  restored  to  me 
by  the  heavy  sweat  of  your  brow  !  Truly,  it  was  some- 
thing strange!  touching! 

"  Tlumks,  above  all,  to  the  good  Providence  that,  just 
at  the  right  time,  and  wholly  unexpectedly,  led  you  to  do 
this  for  the  support  of  my  family  (for  I  have  never  found 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL".  215 

it  so  difficult  to  help  tliem  as  now,  when  my  old  body  will 
not  acquiesce  in  it).  Thanks  also  to  you,  through  whom 
Providence  has  chosen  the  means  to  help  me.  Be  as- 
sured, till  my  apparently  near  dissolution,  I  shall  be 
yours.  .,  ^y  „ 

The  weeks  that  followed  the  successful  reception  of  the 
Unsichtbare  Loge  were  the  "  Sabbath  weeks  "  of  Paul's  life. 
He  had  had  the  courage  to  speak  out  in  the  fulness  of 
his  nature,  and  had  found  a  response  in  many  hearts.  In 
the  paradise  that  opened  before  him  he  determined  to 
give  full  course  to  the  flood  of  his  genius  ;  but  he  well 
knew  that  the  richest  fulness  of  poetic  thought  could 
only  exist  in  connection  with  peace  of  soul,  cheerfulness 
of  disposition,  and  firmness  of  purpose ;  and  that  the 
truth  of  his  representations  must  arise  from  correspond- 
ing inward  truth  and  integrity ;  in  short,  if  he  would  be 
a  poet  in  his  works  he  must  be  a  poet  in  his  life. 

He  carefully  continued  his  book  of  devotion,  his  rules 
and  purposes  of  life.  He  never  awoke  without  review- 
ing the  past  day,  and  where  he  had  been  assaulted  by  the 
force  of  any  passion,  there  he  placed  a  double  bulwark, 
and  with  quiet  satisfaction  celebrated  the  victory  gained. 
His  quick  and  warm  fancy  led  hira  often  to  outbreaking 
anger,  and  his  ready  wit  to  satire  tliat  was  sometimes 
wounding,  especially  when  his  good  nature  was  misused ; 
but  the  gentlest  call  led  him  back  to  tenderness,  —  the 
accidental  sight  of  a  boy's  face  with  tears  in  his  eyes  was 
sufficient  to  disarm  liim ;  he  thought  of  his  future  life,  of 
the  sorrows  that  would  draw  from  him  still  bitterer  tears, 
and  he  said,  "  /  will  not  pour  into  the  cup  of  humanity 
a  single  drop  of  gall,"  and  he  kept  his  woi-d.  Where  he 
was  obliged  to  assert  his  riglits,  he  did  it  so  calmly  and 


2l6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

gently,  that  the  holy  treasures  of  liis  life,  love  and  truth, 
l-emaiiied  forever  undisturbed. 

Everything  living  touched  his  heart,  from  the  humblest 
flower  that  opened  its  leaves  in  the  grass,  up  to  the  shin- 
ing worlds  on  high  ;  children  and  old  men,  the  beggar 
and  the  rich,  he  would  have  embraced  them  all  iu  the 
sacred  glow  of  his  emotions,  or  given  all  he  possessed  to 
make  them  happy.  No  one  went  from  him  unconsoled ; 
and  when  he  could  give  nothing  but  good  counsel,  he 
gave  that.  Were  it  only  a  poor  mountaineer,  or  a  trav- 
elling apprentice  to  whom  he  could  impart  the  smallest 
present,  he  would  dwell  the  whole  day  with  delight 
on  the  circumstance.  Often  he  would  say  to  himself: 
"Now  he  wiU  draw  the  dollar  from  his  pocket,  and 
reckon  which  of  his  long-cherished  wishes  he  can  first 
satisfy.  How  often  will  he  think  of  this  day,  and  of  the 
unexpected  gift,  and  perhaps  once  more  than  usual  upon 
the  Giver  of  all  good."  Love  was  the  ever-living  prin- 
ciple of  his  character  and  of  his  writings,  and  before  the 
tliought  of  the  Infinite,  all  differences  in  rank  vanished 
away ;  all  were  equally  great  or  equally  little.  He 
gained  nourishment  for  this  principle  from  every  circum- 
stance in  life.  Where  others  would  have  been  untouched 
and  cold,  there  he  heard  whispered  to  his  spirit  the  voice 
of  humanity.  Let  him  speak  for  himself.  He  says  in 
his  journal :  — 

"  I  picked  up  in  the  choir  a  faded  rose-leaf,  that  lay 
under  the  feet  of  the  boys.  Great  God !  what  had  I  in 
my  hand  but  a  small  leaf,  with  a  little  dust  upon  it,  and 
upon  this  small  fugitive  thing  my  fancy  built  a  whole 
l)aradise  of  joy,  —  a  whole  summer  dwelt  upon  this  leaf. 
I  tliought  of  the  beautiful  day  when  the  boy  held  this 
flower  in  his  hand,  and  when  through  the  church  window 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  217 

he  saw  the  blue  heaven  and  the  clouds  wandering  over 
it ;  when  every  place  in  the  cool  vault  was  full  of  sun- 
light, and  reminded  him  of  the  shadows  on  the  grass  from 
the  over-flying  clouds.  Good  God  !  thou  scatterest  satis- 
faction everywhere,  and  givest  to  every  one  joys  to  im- 
part again.  Not  merely  dost  thou  invite  us  to  great  and 
exciting  pleasures,  but  thou  givest  to  the  smallest  a  lin- 
gering perfume." 

Above  all  things  his  e}^e  hung  upon  Nature.  He  lived 
and  wrote  whole  days  in  the  open  air,  on  the  mountain  or 
in  the  woods  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  winter  he  sought  from 
the  window  the  evening  rose  color,  his  beloved  stars,  and 
that  magic  enchanter,  the  moon.  Every  walk  in  the  open 
air  was  to  him  the  entrance  into  a  church.  He  said  in 
his  journal :  "  Dost  thou  enter  pure  into  this  vast,  guilt- 
less temple  ?  Dost  thou  bring  no  poisonous  passion  into 
this  place,  where  flowers  bloom  and  birds  sing  ?  Dost 
thou  bear  no  hatred  where  Nature  loves  ?  Art  thou 
calm  as  the  stream  where  Nature  reflects  herself  as  in  a 
mirror  ?  Ah,  would  that  my  heart  were  as  true  and  as 
unruffled  as  Nature,  when  she  came  from  the  hands  of 
her  great  Creator  ! "  Every  new  excursion  in  this  great 
temple  gave  him  new  strength,  and  he  returned  laden 
with  spiritual  treasures.  He  loved  to  make  short  jour- 
neys on  foot,  where  the  motion  of  the  body  kept  the  mind 
in  a  state  of  activity ;  and  the  insignificant  gained  value 
by  its  unexpectedness.  A  sunny  day  made  him  happy, 
and  the  perfumes  of  a  spring  morning,  or  dewy  evening, 
seemed  almost  to  intoxicate  him  with  their  incense ;  but 
the  hours  of  night  were  those  of  his  highest  elevation, 
when  he  would  lie  long  hours  on  the  dewy  grass,  looking 
into  the  opening  clouds.  He  says  in  his  journal :  "  I  take 
my  ink-flask  in  the  morning,  and  write  as  I  walk  in  the 
10 


2l8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

fragrant  air.  Then  comes  my  joy,  that  I  have  conquered 
two  of  my  faults,  —  my  disposition  to  be  angry  iu  conver- 
sation, and  to  lose  my  cheerfulness  through  a  long  day  of 
dust  and  mosquitoes.  Nothing  makes  one  so  indifferent 
to  the  pin  and  mosquito  thrusts  of  life,  as  the  conscious- 
ness of  growing  better."  '-■ 

Immediately  after  the  publication  of  The  Invisible 
Lodge,  the  friend  who  had  exerted  himself  so  much  in 
its  favoi",  and  whose  admiration  had  been  so  warmly  ex- 
pressed, Moritz,  of  Berlin,  died.  The  book  did  not  attain 
the  universal  fame  he  had  predicted  for  it ;  Paul  himself 
was  sensible  of  its  faults,  and  proposed  a  few  years  after- 
wards wholly  to  re-write,  and  give  it  a  more  satisfactory 
conclusion.  It  remains  however  unfinished,  and  appears 
to  me  the  least  interesting  of  all  Richter's  serious  ro- 
mances, and  he,  before  his  death,  called  it  a  Born  Ruin. 
Whatever  the  cause,  for  his  Hesperus,  which  was  finished 
and  sent  to  Otto  to  read  on  the  longest  day  of  the  year 
1794,  Richter  could  obtain  only  two  hundred  Prussian 
dollars.  This  is  the  work  by  which  the  author  lias  been 
best  known,  out  of  Germany.  In  Germany,  Titan  is  the 
work,  the  great  wokk  of  Jean  Paul ;  but  the  first  vol- 
ume is  so  peculiai'ly  Jeaii  Paulish,  that  I  presume  many 
persons  have  been  deterred  from  going  beyond  that. 

It  is,  perhaps,  desirable  to  the  English  reader  to  leam 
something  of  the  work  by  which  the  author  is  best  known. 

HESPERUS. 

It  was  a  singularly  happy  illustration  to  compare  Hes- 
perus to  Strasburg  Cathedral ;  although  it  is  full  of  beauty, 
of  lovely  pictures,  and  of  exquisite  passages,  it  is  deficient 
in  symmetry  and  unfinished  in  its  details.     The  story  is 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  219 

SO  confused,  that  probably  many  persons  have  read  and 
admired  the  book  without  even  getting  a  clear  idea  of 
its  story. 

The  Prince  January,  in  his  various  travels,  has  left  five 
sons  in  the  different  countries  where  lie  has  rested.  Lord 
Horion,  an  Englishman,  after  the  death  of  a  beloved  wife, 
ardently  desires  some  employment  that  will  lessen  the 
void  in  his  heart ;  meeting  this  Prince  January,  he  be- 
comes his  friend,  and,  returning  with  him  to  Germany, 
makes  himself  necessary  to  him  as  a  wise  and  powerful 
minister.  Of  the  five  sons,  one  only  enters  into  the 
scenes  of  the  romance,  Flamin  the  youngest,  whose 
mother  was  a  niece  of  Lord  Horion.  After  the  deser- 
tion of  the  prince,  this  niece  mari-ies  Le  Baut,  his  cham- 
berlain. Lord  Horion,  fearing  that  his  own  influence 
will  be  overruled  by  that  of  his  niece  and  her  son,  if 
permitted  to  return  with  the  prince  to  Germany,  per- 
suades her  to  separate  herself  from  Le  Baut  (whose  bad 
character  is  indeed  a  sufficient  reason),  and  remain  with 
her  son  in  England.  Eyman,  the  chaplain  of  the  prince, 
had  also  followed  him  to  England,  having  before  married 
a  young  lady  of  the  court,  who  gave  birth  to  a  son  just 
at  the  time  Flamin  was  born.  Lord  Horion,  the  master- 
spirit and  juggler  of  the  history,  and  who  wishes  to  try 
the  experiment  of  educating  a  prince  as  if  he  were  only  a 
citizen,  effects  the  exchange  of  the  infants ;  gives  Flamin, 
the  son  of  the  prince,  to  Eyman  the  chaplain  ;  and  Victor, 
the  chaplain's  son  (as  his  own  son  Julius,  by  his  beloved 
wife,  is  bom  blind),  he  determines  to  educate  as  his  own, 
and  gives  liim  his  own  name. 

The  three  children,  Flamin,  Victor,  and  Julius,  to- 
gether with  Julia,  the  daughter  also  of  Lord  Horion, 
arc  educated  by  Emanuel,  or  Dahore,  a  Moravian,  or 


220  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Brahmin,  or  mystical  philosopher,  and  remain  in  Eng- 
land until  their  tenth  or  twelfth  year,  under  the  maternal 
care  of  the  divorced  wife  of  Le  Baut,  the  niece  of  Lord 
Horion.  To  the  surprise  of  every  one,  Flamin,  the  re- 
puted son  of  the  chaplain,  but  the  real  son  of  the  prince, 
is  educated  for  an  advocate ;  Victor,  the  reputed  sdn  of 
the  lord,  but  the  real  son  of  the  chaplain,  for  a  physician ; 
and  the  story  opens  w^hen  they  have  all  returned  to  Ger- 
many and  are  just  entering  upon  their  respective  employ- 
ments, Flamin  as  a  counsellor,  Victor  as  court  physician. 
Clotilda,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Horion's  niece,  born  w^hile 
she  was  the  w  ife  of  Le  Baut,  has  also  returned  to  her 
father,  who  has  been  disgraced  at  the  court  of  the  prince, 
and  withdrawn  to  his  country-seat,  St.  Lune,  where  Ey- 
man  is  also  pastor,  after  having  been  coui't  chaplain. 
Lord  Horion  is  himself  absent,  for  the  purpose  of  seek- 
ing the  fifth  son  of  the  prince,  and  thinks  to  hold  in  his 
hand  the  wires  that  shall  direct  all  their  motions  in  his 
absence. 

The  scene  opens  under  the  following  circumstances : 
Flamin  and  Victor,  intimate  friends,  and  brothers  in  affec- 
tion, come  to  St.  Lune  to  pass  the  holidays,  previous  to 
entering  upon  their  duties  at  court ;  Lord  Horion  having 
become  bluid  through  grief  for  the  loss  of  his  wife,  Victor 
operates  upon  his  eyes  and  gives  him  back  the  light. 
Flamin,  thinking  himself  the  son  of  Eyraan,  had  become 
passionately  attached  to  his  half  sister,  Clotilda.  She 
had  herself  become  acquainted  with  their  consanguinity, 
by  having  been  the  reader  to  Lord  Horion  during  his 
blindness,  but  she  was  bound  by  him  to  keep  the  secret. 
Victor,  at  tiie  first  siglit  of  Clotilda,  falls  passionately  in 
love  with  hei',  but  stifles  his  passion  from  principles  of 
honor,  and  from  affection  to  his  friend   Flamin,  w^hose 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  221 

relationship  to  Clotilda  lie  does  not  yet  know.  Through 
the  eccentricities  and  iniprobabiUties  of  this  plan  Jean 
Paul  contrives  to  involve  the  fate  of  his  lovers,  and  to 
excite  the  deepest  interest  for  their  destiny. 

There  is  another  charactei",  the  evil  spirit  of  the  his- 
tory, Matthieu,  the  son  of  the  minister  Schleunes,  an 
eccentric  and  wicked  youth,  whose  rich  powers  of  intel- 
lect are  impaired  through  his  bad  heart.  He  possesses 
the  art  of  the  ventriloquist,  and  the  power  of  imitating 
all  voices  and  sounds.  Assuming  the  voice  of  Clotilda, 
he  is  permitted  by  the  blind  Lord  Horion  to  read  his 
letters,  and  thus  discovering  the  secret  relationship  of 
Flamin  to  Clotilda,  and  his  real  parentage,  is  able  to 
infuse  suspicion  and  jealousy  into  all  hearts. 

The  limited  experience  of  the  Poet  permitted  hira  only 
a  limited  range  of  characters  ;  but  he  represents  the  moral 
and  intellectual  errors  in  these  characters,  not  only  in 
their  influence  upon  others,  but  as  they  secretly  return 
upon  themselves.  Thus,  mystical  enthusiasm  is  carried 
to  such  madness  in  Emanuel,  that  he  imagines  he  has  the 
power,  by  the  force  of  the  spiritual  nature,  to  cease  to 
live  at  a  certain  time,  and  to  leave  the  body.  He  is 
cured  and  punished  by  the  accidental  discharge  of  a 
powder-reservoir,  that  occasions  his  death. 

Lord  Horion  imagined  that  he  held  in  his  hand  the 
secret  springs,  and  could  direct  the  motions  of  sentient 
beings  as  if  they  were  puppets,  obedient  only  to  mechani- 
cal impulses.  He  left  out  of  his  calculations  the  will  and 
the  passions  of  each  individual,  and,  failing  in  his  objects, 
the  world,  to  his  cold  injideUty,  seems  empty  of  everything 
worth  striving  for.  He  retires  to  a  solitary  island,  and 
there,  by  his  own  hand,  falls  into  the  grave  of  his  wife. 

But  the  great  idea  of  Hesperus,  as  it  was  of  the  Invisi' 


222  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

ble  Lodge,  is  to  unite  in  a  powerful  character  all  outward 
and  inward  greatness.  Victor,  the  hero  of  the  novel, 
fails  to  represent  this  idea  to  the  reader.  He  rather 
unites  the  characteristics  of  Jean  Paul  himself;  the 
serious  poetic  nature  with  that  of  the  humorist.  To 
evolve  his  higher  nature,  he  is  educated  as  the  son  of  a 
nobleman ;  but  to  make  him  a  humorist,  as  according  to 
the  Poet's  definition  of  humor,  strong  contrasts  are  neces- 
sary ;  he  was  therefore  the  son  of  a  country  pastor,  and 
destined  to  be  a  physician,  "  to  whom  the  hut  and  the 
palace  are  equally  open."  Richter  himself  was  conscious 
of  an  irretrievable  failure  in  the  character  of  Victor.  Al- 
though full  of  all  lovely  and  engaging  qualities,  he  fails 
to  interest  the  sympathies  of  the  reader.  He  is  the  rep- 
resentative of  a  certain  period  of  life  rather  than  a  com- 
plete human  being.  It  is  the  period  of  preparation  for 
action,  but  the  action  which  succeeds  the  period  of  high 
ideal  love  in  truly  great  minds  is  Avanting.  For  what  does 
he  strive  ?  For  tender  and  generous  emotions,  and  for  an 
opportunity  to  jest.  He  never  acts.  He  waits,  while  all 
around  him,  impelled  by  different  passions,  involve  him 
in  the  consequences.  Even  his  virtues  appear  like  weak- 
nesses. He  is  saved  from  seduction  by  a  being  infinitely 
interesting  to  his  fancy  merely  through  an  accident,  and 
the  reader  feels  that  in  a  life  of  action  or  of  trial  he  must 
inevitably  fail. 

The  heroine,  Clotilda,  is  the  first  in  the  gallery  of 
female  portraits  in  which  Jean  Paul  sought  to  embody 
his  ideal  of  female  excellence  and  loveliness.  She  also 
disappoints  the  reader,  as  she  hovers,  an  undefined  being, 
half  angel,  half  woman,  over  the  pages  of  the  romance, 
and  we  seem  never  to  catch  a  full  view  of  tlie  Madonna 
loveliness   of  her   features,   but   they   are   immediately 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  223 

shrouded  in  clouds.  Richter  had  not  yet  seen  all  the 
elements  he  wished  to  unite  in  woman  in  any  of  his 
female  friends.  His  own  ideal,  like  the  rainbow  in  his 
fancy,  hovered  constantly  before,  and  led  him  on,  till 
it  became  a  luminous  point,  the  highest  aim  of  his 
poetic  exertion. 

The  public,  and  even  the  friends  of  Richter,  mistook 
his  design  in  the  character  of  Dahore,  or  Emanuel.  As 
he  described  him  with  all  the  glow  of  fancy,  and  his  death 
with  true  and  deep  emotion,  they  imagined  he  was  in- 
tended for  a  model  rather  than  a  warning.  Ricliter  was 
wounded  by  the  imputation,  and  justly  complained  that 
liis  critics  would  not  take  the  trouble  to  investigate  the 
character  of  Dahore,  and  place  the  public  in  a  right  un- 
derstanding of  his  design.  Goethe  painted,  in  poetically 
beautiful  and  seducing  colors,  the  weakness  and  the  con- 
fusion of  moral  good  and  evil  in  the  character  of  Werter, 
and  others  took  the  trouble  to  vindicate  the  moral  design 
of  the  autlior,  or  to  present  a  suthcient  antidote. 

Jean  Paul  intended  to  paint,  in  his  Emanuel,  that 
enervating  excess  of  feeling,  that  longing  after  a  world  of 
love  and  beauty,  where  the  perfume  of  flowers  and  the 
luxury  of  tears  unfit  one  for  common  every-day  duties  ;  a 
malady  that  is  apt  to  infect  the  most  elevated  and  spir- 
itual natures  ;  and,  as  he  had  healed  himself,  he  wished 
to  heal  others  of  that  mystical  disease,  carried  to  luxu- 
riant excess  in  Emanuel,  but  of  which  the  seeds  are  in 
every  human  breast. 

Hesperus,  although  failing  as  a  w^ork  of  art  of  the  aim 
which  tlie  author  intended,  is  yet  a  temple  where  hu- 
manity, love,  and  nature  are  reverenced.  It  is  full  of 
passages  and  whole  scenes  of  exquisite  beauty,  and  rich 
to  excess  in  the  peculiarities  of  our  author.     The  pages 


224  I^IfE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

dazzle  us  with  wit  and  condensed  sentences  of  wisdom, 
and  the  reader  is  fatigued  by  a  prolonged  perusal,  as  he  is 
by  a  book  of  aphorisms. 

The  whole  is  enclosed  in  a  comic  or  humorous  frame. 
The  author  mixes  his  own  personal  history  with  the 
romance,  by  imagining  it  brought  to  him  on  a  solitary 
island  by  a  dog,  who  swims  across  with  the  chapters 
suspended  from  his  neck  in  a  basket.  The  chapters 
are  therefore  called  Hundpostagen  (Dog-post-days).  The 
days  that  the  dog-post  fails  the  author  fills  with  essays 
and  satires  of  his  own.  These  interlocutory  days  are  full 
of  wit  and  wisdom,  although,  as  interrupting  the  narra- 
tive, the  reader  is  inclined  to  skip  them. 

The  description  in  Hesperus,  of  the  transfer  of  the 
Princess  Agnola,  is  that  of  a  real  occurrence,  —  the  trans- 
fer of  the  Princess  of  Tuscany,  as  the  bride  of  the  Saxon 
Prince  Maximilian,  which  took  place  in  Hof  in  1793. 
And  the  portrait  of  the  bridegi'oom  carried  in  a  sedan- 
chair,  and  stopping  whenever  the  princess  stopped,  was 
an  actual  part  of  the  ceremony.  Richter  here  shows 
what  tributes  he  could  draw  from  real  life,  and  what 
treasures  a  youth,  richer  in  incidents  and  experience, 
would  have  accumidated  for  his  after  years.* 

*  These  sketches  of  the  characters  in  "  Hesperus,"  as  well  as  in  the 
books  that  follow,  are  wholly  insufficient  to  give  the  reader  an  idea  of 
their  excellence.    The  limits  of  the  book  oblige  me  to  be  brief. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


RicnTER  VISITS  Baybeuth.  —  The  Jew  Emanuel.  —  The  Origi- 
nal OF  Clotilda.  — "  Siebenkas."  —  Letter  from  Septimus 

FiXLEIN. 


A.  D. 1794, 
Mt.  31. 


LTHOUGH,  as  already  mentioned, 
the  hopes  that  Moritz  had  excited, 
of  an  immediate  splendid  fortune  for  our  poet, 
Avere  already  disappointed,  and  he  obtained 
only  two  hundred  dollars  for  the  four  volumes  of  Hes- 
perus, he  had  given  up  his  school  and  returned  to  his 
mother's  still  humble  dwelling  ;  but  he  found  himself 
obliged  to  resort  again  to  teaching,  and  received  the 
young  sisters  of  his  friends,  as  daily  pupils,  in  his  own 
house. 

He  says,  "  Very  little  remained  after  dividing  the  two 
hundred  dollars  with  my  mother  and  brother  ;  and  I  am 
yet  compelled,  like  the  bird,  to  learn  to  sing  in  a  dark- 
ened cage." 

His  next  woi'k  seems  to  have  grown  out  of  the  circum- 
stances of  his  present  life,  in  which  he  sought  to  solve  the 
Xerxes  riddle,  not  to  create  new  joys,  but  from  the  en- 
chantment of  fancy  to  bring  out  the  infinite  riches  of  the 
old.  Quintus  Fixlein  is  only  an  enlarged  and  more 
elaborate  Wuz,  in  which  the  poet  represents  the  small 
and  contented  joys  of  the  schoolmaster,  increased  beyond 
10*  o 


226  LIFE    OF    JE-AN    PAUL. 

measure  by  rising  a  step  higher  in  the  scale  of  social  life, 
and  becoming  a  pastor.  The  poet  knew  no  situation 
more  depressed  tlian  that  of  school-teachers,  in  so  far  as 
a  higher  education  made  them  more  sensitive  to  the  pov- 
erty and  limitations  of  their  actual  life.  In  no  situation 
in  Germany  are  the  discouragements  of  life  more^'^p- 
parent.  At  the  same  time  he  could  attain  the  other 
aim  of  all  his  writings,  to  contend  for  tlie  oppressed 
against  the  original  causes  of  oppression,  the  institutions 
of  the  state  and  the  privileges  of  birth,  and  so,  in  a  double 
sense,  be  the  advocate  of  the  poor.* 

The  -pecuniary  reward  that  Paul  received  for  the  Hes- 
perus was  far  from  being  the  best  of  his  compensations. 
After  the  publication  of  that  work,  letters  poured  in  upon 
him  from  every  side.  Vogel,  who  had  been  estranged 
from  him,  renewed  his  friendship  and  his  correspondence. 
Even  those  who  had  known  him  long  wei-e  inspired  with 
new  admiration.  Otto,  who  had  judged  his  former  works 
with  calm  severity,  which  was  indeed  the  fomidation  of 
his  own  character,  was  excited  by  this  to  the  most  glow- 
ing expression  of  deep  and  inward  joy.  The  joyful  sense 
of  the  approbation  of  his  friends,  and  the  consciousness 
that,  in  striving  to  embody  his  own  high  ideal,  he  had 
reached  a  higher  point,  though  far  below  his  aim,  made 
the  summer  of  the  year  1794  the  most  precious  he  had 
yet  enjoyed. 

The  happiness  of  Richter  was  increased  during  the 
summer  by  a  visit  to  Bayreuth.  He  was  drawn  there  by 
his   acquaintance    with    Emanuel,   a    Jewish   merchant, 

*  As  Quintus  FixUin  is  known  to  the  American  public  through 
Carlyle's  admirable  translation,  which  has  been  reprinted  in  Boston, 
it  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  any  analysis  of  one  of  the  most  simple 
of  Jean  Paul's  works. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  227 

whose  genial  and  benevolent  character  attracted  Rich- 
ter's  esteem.  Emanuel  had  been,  like  Wordsworth's 
Mattheiv,  in  early  life  a  travelling  merchant  to  the  differ- 
ent villages  in  the  Fichtelgebirge,  until,  through  his  ac- 
tivity and  extreme  honesty,  he  had  gained  the  confidence 
of  every  one,  and  became  a  Avealthy  banker,  or  what  we 
call  an  estate  broker.  The  knowledge  of  the  world 
gained  by  such  a  life,  the  union  of  integrity  and  feeling, 
originality  and  truth,  acquired  for  him  unlimited  confi- 
dence, which  was  increased  by  a  singularly  noble  and 
interesting  exterior.  His  peculiar  business  opened  to 
him  an  extensive  correspondence,  especially  Avith  accom- 
plished women,  in  which  all  the  bloom  of  his  mind  and 
heart  was  expressed.  A  sight  of  this  correspondence 
had  attracted  Jean  Paul  to  the  writer. 

Emanuel  met  him  with  the  reserve  and  self-respect 
that  higher  natures  among  that  oppressed  people,  the 
Jews,  assume,  from  the  notion  that  benevolence  alone  ex- 
cited his  interest.  Tliis  for  some  time  kept  up  a  resei-ve 
between  them,  that  ceased  after  the  publication  of  Hes- 
perus. Emanuel  was  delighted  with  the  Oriental  glow 
and  richness  of  illustration  in  that  work,  and  Richter 
found  in  his  new  friend  treasures  of  observation  and  ex- 
perience which  he  seized  to  enrich  his  future  works.* 

For  the  first  time  in  his  life  Paul  found  himself  in  a 
study,  furnished  with  articles  of  luxury  and  taste,  in  an 
elegant  street  in  the  little  city  of  Bayreuth,  where  ducal 
residences  alternated  with  two-story  houses  of  red  sand- 
stone, and  the  ornamental  fountains  of  princely  castles 

*  Emanuel's  mind  was  richly  furnished  with  the  knowledge  and 
images  deri"ed  from  Oriental  poetry  and  philosophy;  and  to  Richter, 
A^ho  from  childhood  had  been  fascinated  with  these  subjects,  he  af- 
forded a  treasure  of  observation  and  experience. 


228  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

were  intenuixed  with  the  green  blinds  of  village  houses. 
What  was  his  joyful  astonishment  to  find,  twelve  whole 
hours*  from  Hof,  his  own  writings  known  and  read. 

The  friendly  reception  he  met  among  the  accomplished 
men  of  this  city,  contrasted  as  it  was  with  the  small  value 
that  was  expressed  for  his  poor  family  in  Hof,  gave  Itim 
no  doubt  a  predisposition  for  this  city,  and  led  to  tlie  reso- 
lution he  afterwards  adopted,  after  many  changes,  to  make 
this  the  place  of  his  future  home.  In  Bayreuth,  he  had 
the  double  joy  of  finding  himself  appreciated ;  and,  for 
the  first  time,  becoming  acquainted  with  an  accomplished 
woman  of  high  rank,  the  original  from  which  he  drew  his 
Clotilda  in  Hesperus.  She  had  been  described  to  him  by 
the  pen  of  a  friend,  that  might  have  been  "  cut  by  the 
god  of  love  himself,"  and  she  had  also  written  to  him, 
asking  for  his  friendship  and  correspondence  in  return  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  had  warned  him,  that  he  must  not 
rely  on  the  description  that  had  been  given  of  her ;  for 
her  portrait,  personal  and  moral,  had  been  heightened  by 
the  coloring  of  love.  Now,  when  he  had  seen  the  origi- 
nal, he  wrote  thus  to  Otto :  "  Touching  the  beautiful  Clo- 
tilda. Saturday  evening,  as  soon  as  I  arrived,  I  seized  a 
pen  to  invite  myself  to  visit  her  at  five  o'clock.  She  sent 
a  billet  by  the  return  of  the  servant,  in  which  she  turned 
the  hands  of  my  watch  two  hours  back.  '  We  will  both,' 
she  said,  '  go  about  three  o'clock  through  the  Hermitage,' 
(this  was  a  princely  garden  in  Bayreuth.)  I  crept  then 
into  the  lower  story  of  the  Rutzensteen  house,  and 
through  beautiful  rooms  into  a  third,  where  she  sat,  half 
concealed  by  a  curtained  and  flowery  window,  listening  to 

*  Stunde  is  used  in  Germany  for  distances,  thus:  Es  isl  eine  SluiiJe 
bis  da/iin,  "It  is  an  hour's  walk,"  means  about  two  English  miles. 
Bayreuth  was  twenty-fom*  miles  from  Hof. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  229 

two  niglitingales.  Could  I  describe  her,  you  would  have 
a  wholly  new  female  character  in  your  head,  or  rather  in 
your  heart.  She  is  of  a  majestic  height,  is  twenty-seven 
years  old,  and  has  a  very  slightly  arched,  but  well-formed 
profile.  A  half  shadowy  reflection  of  rose  color  was  drawn 
over  her  face,  which  departs  a  little  from  the  female  oval ; 
with  the  most  beautifully  ennobled  Berlin  expression. 
In  the  beginning  merely,  she  made  with  the  head  eight 
or  nine  and  a  half  (I  may  err  in  the  number)  motions 
too  many,  but  her  conversation  with  me  was  full  of  be- 
nevolence, decision,  and  generosity.  Wlien  she  sings, 
her  two  nightingales  strike  in,  and  altogether  is  as  if 
one's  heart  must  escape  by  the  enchantment  from  the 
breast." 

Paul  had  also  the  satisfaction  in  Bayreuth  of  having 
his  Hesperus  read  by  the  bedside  of  the  old  lady  Plotho, 
the  patroness  of  his  father,  who  was  now  on  her  death- 
bed, and  who  recalled  the  time  when  he  used  to  stand  at 
her  breakfast-table,  and  read  the  newspapers  to  her. 

After  Paul's  return  from  Bayreuth,  he  wrote  to 
Emanuel. 

"July,  1795. 

"  The  day  that  I  left  Bayreuth,  the  longest  day  of  the 
year,  was  my  shortest  and  happiest.  Since  then,  I  hear 
nothing  of  my  friends.  Are  you  then  nightingales,  that 
after  St.  John's  day  are  silent  ?  In  Bayreuth,  my  mo- 
ments were  roses,  and  my  hours  polished  brilliants  ;  so 
much  the  more  readily  do  these  images  arise,  like  buried 
pictures,  and  the  intoxication  of  memory  renews  my  thirst 
for  the  present  joy  cup,  and  joy  begets  heimweh. 

"  It  is  wonderful  that  men  in  seasons  of  happiness,  in 
youth,  in  beautiful  places,  in  the  fairest  season  of  the  year 
incline  more  surely  to  the  enthusiasm  of  longing ;  they 


230  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

think  oftener  of  a  future  world,  and  more  readily  form 
pictures  of  death ;  while  the  opposite  takes  place  in  want, 
in  age,  in  Greenland  and  in  winter.  Thus  the  best  men 
are  humble  through  happiness,  pious,  tender,  thireting  for 
a  liigher  liappiness  :  misfortune  makes  them  proud,  severe, 
and  full  of  earthly  plans.  With  bad  men  it  is  often  exactly 
the  reverse.  After  praise  a  man  is  modest  and  humble  ; 
when  blamed,  he  asserts  an  opposing  pride.  Thus  the 
tear  of  joy  is  a  pearl  of  the  first  water,  the  mourning 
tear  only  of  the  second.  I  begin  a  ball  with  gayety, 
and  conclude  it  with  melancholy.  Pi'olonged  sounds 
of  music,  long-continued  dancing,  the  midnight  starry 
heavens,  soften,  as  it  were,  the  heart,  as  melon-seeds 
are  made  to  swell  in  sweet  wine,  and  the  first  shoot 
from  this  seed  is  a  weeping  willow." 

In  the  mean  time,  Richter's  industry  was  unremitting. 
Before  the  close  of  this  year,  1796,  the  Blumen-Frucht- 
und-Dornenstukke  appeared.*  This  is  a  collection  of 
pieces,  one  of  which  is  the  singular  dream  of  the  dead 
Christ,  translated  by  Madame  de  Stael,  that  made  Richter 
first  known  out  of  Germany.  The  longest  of  the  fruit- 
pieces  is  the  history  of  the  Poor's  Advocate,  SiehenJcas,  one 
of  the  most  remarkable,  and  at  this  time  the  most  personal 
of  all  Jean  Paul's  works.  Under  the  veil  of  fictitious  char- 
acters, he  describes  his  own  transition  from  tlie  every-day 
life  of  reality  to  the  higlier  ideal  life  of  poetry  and  im- 
agination. This  romance  is  remarkable  also  for  a  de- 
scription of  a  Poppenshaw,  or  bird-shooting,  so  like  that 
of  Scott's,  in  Old  Mortality,  that  if  the  German  novel 
had  been  known  at  that  time,  we  might  almost  imagine 
vScott  had  taken  a  hint  from  it.  The  actors  in  Richter's 
are  a  poor's  advocate,  a  shoemaker,  and  a  hair-dresser ; 

*  Flower,  Fruit,  and  Thorn  Pieces. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL,  231 

■with  these  ho  has  contrived  to  keep  up  an   unflagging 
interest  through  more  than  a  hundred  pages. 

The  cliaracter  of  Lenette  in  this  work  is  said  to  have 
been  drawn  from  Paul's  mother.  It  represents  a  noble^ 
but  Hmited  and  uninstructed  nature,  in  contention  with 
all  the  little  down-pressing  circumstances  of  real  life,  and 
menaced  with  the  grim  spectre  of  actual  want.  Nothing 
can  be  more  true,  and  of  more  universal  application,  than 
Paul's  \-iew  in  this  novel  of  the  sufferings  of  an  ill-as- 
sorted union,  when  there  is  neither  vice  nor  crime,  only 
an  unequal  standard  of  mind,  and  a  deficiency  of  culture 
in  one  of  the  parties.  The  unhappy  Lenette  is  incapable 
of  understanding  her  gifted  husband;  Siebenkas,  full  of 
tenderness  and  all  noble  qualities,  who  has  married  her 
for  her  innocence  and  simplicity,  is  at  length  worn  out  by 
her  narrowness,  obtuseness,  and  want  of  sympathy,  and 
their  mutual  sufferings  are  rich  in  instruction  for  all 
married  pei-sons. 

It  is  impossible  to  present  an  analysis,  or  even  an  ab- 
stract, of  this  remarkable  work.  The  Germans  give  it  a 
philosophical  and  poetical  interpretation.  They  say  that 
Jean  Paul  intended  to  repi-csent  Siebenkas  as  dying  to 
the  actual,  to  the  every-day  life  of  man ;  and  in  the  re- 
luctant and  bleeding  heart  with  which  he  tears  himself 
from  Lenette  is  meant  to  be  represented  the  great  strug- 
gle of  the  soul  to  rise  to  a  higher,  an  ideal  life. 

As  the  half  visible  author  of  Hesperus,*  Paul  had 
drawn  upon  himself  the  attention  of  all  Germany  ;  but 
now,  in  Siebenkas,  he  represents  his  own  and  his  mother's 
struggles  with  poverty  in  the  poor  apartment  in  Ilof,  and 
first  appears  with  his  whole  and  real  name.     The  truth 

*  In  Hesperus  he  first  signed  his  literary  name  Jean  Paul,  without 
the  Richter. 


232  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

of  his  representations  having  their  foundation  in  the  act- 
ual experience  of  the  Avriter,  led  irresistibly,  in  a  new 
and  surprising  manner,  to  faith  in  himself;  only  he  who 
had  felt  the  want  of  outward  blessings  could  describe 
them  so  faithfully,  and  only  one  who  was  possessed  of  the 
temperament  of  joy  could  rise  so  easily  above  the  press- 
ure of  calamity.  The  breathing  form  of  love  that  he 
gave  to  everything  that  came  from  his  hands  was  felt  in 
every  heart,  and  gratitude  as  well  as  admiration  induced 
many  readers  to  crave  a  personal  acquaintance  with  him. 
From  every  side  he  received  expressions  of  gratitude, 
which  were  as  touching  from  their  simplicity,  in  some  in- 
stances, as  they  were  flattering  from  the  distinction  they 
conferred,  in  others. 

He  received  letters  from  poor  country  schoolmasters 
and  pastors,  the  class  of  persons  that  he  has  described 
with  such  simplicity  and  naivete,  begging  him  to  lend  or 
give  a  copy  of  some  one  of  his  works ;  and  perhaps  more 
welcome  yet,  one  morning  in  May  of  this  year  the  post- 
boy brought  him  a  packet,  containing  fifty  Prussian  dol- 
lars and  the  following  letter :  — 

"  You  should  be  pooi-,  dear  Herr  Eichter,  you  !  the 
millionnaire  in  understanding,  as  such  are  usually  poor; 
and  this  is  right,  for  the  otliers  write  no  books ;  and  as 
your  books  give  me  satisfaction,  very  gi-eat  satisfaction, 
and  notliing  but  satisfaction,  I  hold  myself  indebted  to 
Herr  Richter,  and  would  give  him  a  little  proof  that  his 
readers  are  grateful.  Many  readers  cannot  show  their 
gratitude,  and  that  also  is  well,  or  Herr  Richter  would 
become  rich,  and  write  no  more  books 

"  Your  grateful  and  devoted. 

"  SEPTIMUS  FIXLEIN." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  233 

The  Avriter  remained  unknown  until  many  years  after, 
when  a  happy  accident  revealed  him  to  Riehter.* 

The  next  is  a  letter  from  Sophia  la  Roche,  the  gi-and- 
niother  that  Bettine  has  so  beautifully  made  known  to  us 
in  her  correspondence  with  Gunderode. 

"  It  is  impossible  that  the  man  whose  susceptible  soul 
and  richly  thoughtful  mind  hovers  over  all  the  leaves  of 
Hesperus  can  take  it  ill  if  a  good  Frau  thanks  him  for 
the  agreeable  hours  she  has  enjoyed  through  that  won- 
derful book ;  if  she  bless  him,  that  with  so  wonderful  a 
genius  he  is  so  good  a  son,  so  good  a  brother.  Let  a 
mother,  who  has  educated  three  sons,  and  has  lost,  in  his 
three-and-twentieth  year,  the  noblest,  the  most  beautifully 
blooming,  congratulate  his  mother  that  Jean  Paul  is  her 
son  —  and  lives  ! 

"  He  will  not  take  it  ill,  and  my  heart  would  yet  say 
something  more  that  Hesperus,  and  the  little  that  I  have 
heard  of  its  author,  makes  me  think.  I  tell  you  frankly 
that  I  wish  to  know  more  of  you,  for  to  me  your  appear- 
ance is  full  of  truth  and  reverence.  Heaven  make  you 
as  happy  as  it  has  made  you  precious  to  others,  and  when 
you  read  or  hear  my  name,  remember  to  say,  '  That  lady 

is  my  friend.' 

"  SOPHIA  LA  ROCHE." 

*  Appeudix  I. 


CHAPTER    XIII 


Letters  from   Weimar.  —  Letter  from  Madam  von  Kalb. — 

RiCHTER  PREPARES  TO   GO   TO    WeIMAR. 


E  come  now  to  that  period  in  the  life  ^  d.  179o 
of  Richter  when  the  silk  and  golden  ^t-  33. 
threads  of  love  began  to  be  woven  thickly  in 
his  web  of  life ;  when,  borne  in  triumph  by 
eccentric  and  distinguished  women,  although  with  chains 
of  flowers,  he  often  felt  the  concealed  thorns  pierce  his 
heart.  The  publication  of  his  last  works,  Hesperus,  Quin- 
tus  Fixlein,  and  the  Flower,  Fruit,  and  Thorn  Pieces,  drew 
upon  him  the  attention  of  women  in  the  higher  ranks  of 
life,  who  were  not  only  penetrated  with  his  peculiarities 
as  a  writer,  but  began  to  manifest  for  him  a  deep  personal, 
and  more  than  friendly  interest.  The  reader  must  rec- 
ollect Paul's  easily  kindled  imagination,  the  sentiment 
amounting  almost  to  reverence  with  which  he  regarded 
women,  his  separation  from  the  more  elevated  circles  of 
social  life,  and  the  disapjwintment  of  his  former  hopes,  to 
undci'staud  the  excitement,  the  fulness  of  joy  with  which 
he  met  this  new  manifestation  of  tlie  interest  his  writings 
had  produced. 

Upon  tlie  first  of  March  of  this  year  he  received  from 
Weimar  the  following  letter,  which  bore  the  signature  of 
a  noble  lady  :  — 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  235 

"  During  the  last  months  your  works  have  been  made 
known  to  us  in  Weimar.  They  excited  attention,  and  to 
many  have  they  been  most  welcome.  To  me  they  gave 
the  most  agreeable  entertainment,  and  I  have  to  thank 
you  for  some  of  the  sweetest  hours  of  the  past,  which  I 
willingly  wooed  to  linger,  while  the  images  of  your  fancy, 
like  lovely  phantoms  from  tlie  realms  of  spirits,  wandered 
before  my  mind.  Often  was  I  so  deeply  moved  by  the 
charm  and  riches  of  your  thoughts,  that,  overpowered  by 
gratitude,  I  would  seize  the  pen  to  express  it  to  you.  But 
how  insignificant  would  be  such  a  token  from  one  unknown 
to  you  !  In  a  happy  hour  I  heard  your  praises  from  men 
that  you  have  long  known  and  revered,  and  the  wish  to 
write  was  again  excited.  Now  it  is  not  the  solitary  tlower 
of  my  own  admiration  that  I  send  you,  but  an  unfading 
wreath,  which  the  applause  of  Wieland  and  Herder  have 
woven  for  you.  Wieland  has  extracted  much  from  Hes- 
perus and  Fixlein  for  his  Museum.  He  calls  you  '  our 
Yorick,  our  Rabelais,  —  the  purest  spirit ! '  He  discovers 
in  you  the  highest  flights  of  fancy,  the  richest  humor, 
that  often  displays  itself  in  the  most  surprising,  the  most 
agreeable  turns. 

"  All  this  he  recognizes  with  joy  in  your  writings 

You  vnW  find  here  yet  many  more  friends,  whose  names  I 
must  mention  to  you.  Herr  von  Knebel,  the  translator 
of  Propertius,  Herr  von  Einsiedel,  Herr  von  Kalb  ;  your 
writings  belong  to  then*  most  agreeable  reading,  and  long 
have  ornamented  their  desks.  Yes,  we  hope,  through 
your  susceptibility  for  knowledge  of  the  world  and  of 
men,  and  this  rare  talent  lor  delicate  individuality,  to 
receive  many  works  from  your  pen.  Farewell !  Be 
happy  through  the  enjoyment  of  nature,  and  inspired 
through  the  creations  of  art,  and  continue  to  make  us 


236  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

acquainted  with  ideals,  that  honor  the  poet  and  eyinohU 
the  reader." 

Richter  is  represented  like  one  struck  by  an  electrical 
shock  upon  the  reception  of  this  letter.  To  be  known  and 
read  where  Goethe,  Schiller,  Wieland,  —  where  Herder's 
elevated  spirit  shed  an  immediate  influence  upon  all^sur- 
rounding  minds !  This  spot,  that  had  lain  in  distant 
shadow,  like  an  enchanted  world  before  his  longing 
fancy ! 

He  immediately  hastened  to  Bayreuth,  where  a  sister 
of  the  noble  letter-writer,  a  young,  amiable,  and  spiritual 
woman,  lived  with  her  husband. 

I  have  hesitated  whether  to  give  to  the  English  reader 
the  correspondence  of  Jean  Paul  with  this  lady,  Charlotte 
von  Kalb,  who  entered  so  deeply  and  powerfully  into  his 
life  and  poetry,  and  is  said  to  be  the  original  from  which 
he  drew  his  Linda  in  the  Titan. 

Sentiment,  either  in  love  or  friendship,  is  like  those 
delicate  perfumes,  so  delicious  when  breathed  from  the 
plant  as  it  grows  in  the  sun  and  air  of  its  native  home ; 
translated,  it  resembles  the  same  perfume  distilled  and 
mixed  with  foreign  substances,  which,  transported  from 
its  native  sun  and  air,  becomes  faint  or  nauseous. 

We  must  remember  also  that  the  German  language 
is  full  of  expressions  of  tenderness  that  are  wholly  un- 
translatable ;  their  domestic  terms  of  endearment  are  like 
caresses,  and  their  du  and  their  Ja-wort,  to  use  an  expres- 
sion of  Paul's,  "  are  as  if  they  laid  a  rose  in  your  hand." 

Although  much  relating  to  this  lady  is,  to  us,  involved 
in  mystery,  no  one  among  his  correspondents  excites  a 
deeper  interest.  She  appears  to  have  belonged  to  the 
court  of  the  Duchess  Amelia,  as  she  went  with  the  court 
to  the  country.     She  says  in  one  of  her  letters  that  she 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  237 

is  oldei"  than  Richtcr,  and  that  she  had  wept  the  loss  of 
two  children.  Her  letters  disclose  the  most  zealous  and 
disinterested  friendship,  and  their  beauty  and  tenderness 
must  have  kindled  the  warmest  attachment  in  a  heart  like 
Richter's,  had  there  not  been  to  him  a  fatal  objection, — 
she  was  married,  and  unhappily  married. 

Otto  looked  from  the  first  upon  this  correspondence 
with  coldness  and  alarm,  and  would  have  prevented  his 
fi'iend  from  going  to  Weimar.  But  at  the  same  time  Paul 
received  other  flattering  letters ;  one  from  Frederic  voa 
Oerthel,*  expressing  a  glowing  reverence  for  him,  which 
his  youth  and  inexperience  would  not  allow  him  to 
conceal.  The  demand  that  Herder  had  made  for  a  new 
poet,  to  be  heard  first  and  before  all,  as  a  word  from  the 
heart  to  the  heart  of  man  ;  a  sound  of  the  universal  voice 
of  humanity,  an  echo  of  the  mighty  spirit  of  the  age, 
seemed  to  be  answered  in  Richter.  Still  he  was  held 
back  by  his  own  timidity,  or  by  Otto's  anxiety,  and  an- 
swered the  letter  of  his  noble  correspondent,  of  which  I 
give  an  extract :  — 

"  ^Vhen  Jean  Paul  with  three  hundred  pages  can  give 
as  much  satisfaction  as  you  with  your  two  small  and  brief 
ones,  he  would  wish  you  to  praise  many  authors,  thereby 
making  many  happy lie  shall  take  the  place  of  a  bet- 
ter author  than  himself,  and  say  to  you  now  that  I  know 
women  so  well,  and  that  their  masks  are  only  veils  that 
hcigliten  their  intellectual  beauty  as  much  as  they  guard 
it,  —  now  that  I  see  better  than  a  hundred  others,  that 
the  female  heart  is  as  poetic  and  ideal  as  the  head,  and 
that  it  has  little  more  to  give  to  tlie  earth  than  sighs  and 
wishes  ;  that  their  May  of  life,  instead  of  being  like  ours, 

*  Oertliel  was  a  literary  character  in  AVeimar,  bearing  tlie  same 
name,  but  not  related  to  the  friend  of  his  j-outh. 


238  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

as  beautiful  as  that  of  France,  is  like  a  German  May, 
cold  and  frosty  ;  that,  like  the  nightingale,  they  must  col- 
lect the  wool  from  thorns,  from  which,  in  a  thorny  hedge 
they  must  prepare  their  nest,  —  what  should  a  poet  do 
more  with  the  pen  than  offer  them,  not  pitiful  German 
flattery,  but  morning  dreams  and  gentler  sighs  thaiV  they 
can  extract  from  life.  K I  spread  for  one  only,  a  rainbow 
over  the  cloudy  morning  of  life,  —  if  for  one  heart  only  I 
have  drawn  the  angel  of  love  from  his  cloudy  Parnassus 
to  bear  away  the  angel  of  death  !  I  have  lived  and  written 
enough." 

Another  pressing  letter  came  from  his  correspondent. 
"  Two  thirds  of  the  spring  is  gone,  as  I  see  by  the  alma- 
nac. The  trees  are  yet  unleaved  in  the  beautiful  park, 
the  nightingales  have  not  yet  sung,  —  you  are  not  yet 
here  !  All  signs  of  spring  are  absent,  —  which  waits  for 
the  other  ?  They  may  come,  with  all  their  charms  ;  the 
beautiful  foliage,  the  perfume  of  the  flowers,  the  love- 
songs  of  the  birds,  the  gentle  fanning  of  the  spring 
breezes,  but  for  your  iriends  tliey  will  be  nothing,  if  you 
do  not  appear  also.  You  are  the  soul  and  spirit  of  our 
union  ;  we  are  rich  only  in  tlie  esteem,  admiration,  and 
hope  that  your  writings  excite  ;  we  know  who  are  our 
fi'iends  by  their  admiration  of  you,  and  it  is  the  first  word 
of  our  greeting  when  we  meet.  Has  not  Richter  yet 
come  ?  " 

He  hesitated  no  longer.  Like  a  travelling  apprentice, 
he  took  his  pack  and  staff,  and  turned  liis  face  towards 
the  Mecca  of  his  hopes,  not  as  a  merely  modest,  but  as  a 
humble  pilgrim.  For  twelve  years  he  had  looked,  long- 
ingly, from  his  solitary  Fichtelgebii'ge,  to  this  Paradise 
of  exalted  men,  tender  and  accomplished  women,  love  and 
gloiy,  and  all  that  in  a  poet's  golden  dream  awaited  him. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


PiRST  Visit  in  Weimar.  —  Letters  from  Weimar.  ■ 
Herder.  —  Schiller.  —  Wieland. 


Goethe.  — 


T  is  well  known,  that  at  the  time  Jean  a.  d.  1795, 
Paul  entered  the  literary  circles  of  ■^'-  ^^■ 
Weimar  and  its  filial  dependent  Jena,  the  ut- 
most harmony  did  not  prevail  among  the  great 
spirits  of  the  age.  Goethe  and  Schiller  were  at  the  head 
of  what  might  be  called  the  Conservative  party  in  litera- 
ture, at  least,  until  after  the  publication  of  William  Tell. 
Herder,  although  he  was  fettered  by  holding  an  office  at 
court,*  was  opposed  to  them,  both  as  a  pati-iot  and  a 
pliilosopher.  When  Richter  and  his  works  appeared,  he 
was  received  with  joy  and  outstretched  arms,  both  by 
Herder  and  Wieland  ;  but  from  different  points  of  view. 
By  Wieland  as  a  poet,  by  Herder  as  a  man.  The  first 
was  charmed  by  his  glowing  descriptions  of  nature,  and 
his  Sterne-like  humor ;  the  last  by  his  purity  of  heart, 
and  the  deep  religious  feelings  of  the  poet's  soul ;  and 
both,  thi'ough  the  manly  independence  and  love  of  free- 
dom that  breathed  through  every  line  from  his  pen.  The 
absence  in  his  works  of  all  established  rules  of  art,  which 
had  so  offended  Goethe,  was  forgiven  by  men,  one  of 
whom  had  retid  Tristram  Shandy  eighty  times,  and  the 
*  Herder  was  court  chaplain  to  the  Duchess  Ameha. 


240  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

other  carried  his  indifference  to  forms  of  art  so  far  as  to 
condemn  all  rhyme. 

In  rehition  to  Jean  Paul,  Goethe  and  Schiller  stood 
opposed  to  both  Herder  and  Wieland.  Goethe,  who  was 
present  iii  Weimar,  could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  influence 
which  both  these  authors  exerted  upon  the  cultivated'-men 
and  accomplished  women  there.  He  knew,  also,  for  he 
had  experienced  it  in  his  own  case,  how  important  a  help 
the  enthusiasm  of  women  is  in  reaching  the  higher  and 
more  dazzling  elevations  of  fame,  but  his  whole  corre- 
spondence with  Schiller,  who  was  at  this  time  living  at 
Jena,  betrays  his  contempt  for  Richter  and  his  writings. 

But  with  what  feelings  of  reverence  was  Richter  now 
approaching  these  men,  who,  from  his  earliest  age,  he  had 
looked  to  as  shining  worlds  in  the  heaven  of  literature. 
He  would  see  Herder  face  to  face,  perhaps  receive  from 
him  a  word  of  sympathy !  He  would  approach  still 
nearer  to  the  unknown  writer  of  those  flattering  letters, 
to  whom  his  imagination  had  lent  every  enchantment ; 
but  his  unaffected  and  genuine  humility  prevented  him 
from  forming  even  a  faint  idea  of  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  he  was  I'eceived  in  Weimar. 

Immediately  upon  his  arrival,  he  visited  his  unknown 
correspondent.  Madam  von  Kalb,  and  through  her  was 
his  presence  made  known  to  the  distinguished  literary 
characters  of  the  day.  All  wanted  to  see  the  wonderful 
man.  The  men  received  him  Avith  outstretched  hands, 
the  women  with  beating  hearts.  They  vied  with  each 
other  in  attentions  to  liim  ;  even  the  Duchess  Amelia, 
who  had  given  orders  that  they  should  immediately  in- 
form her  of  his  arrival,  flattered  him  by  many  expressions 
ol"  sympathy  and  admiration.  Ilerr  von  Oertlud,  bi'other 
of  his  friend  and  correspondent  in  Leipzig,  took  him  as  a 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  241 

guest  to  his  house,  and  supplied  all  those  little  domestic 
attentions  so  grateful  to  a  stranger.  Whoever  had  read 
his  books  wished  to  be  introduced  to  him,  and  whoever 
saw  and  heard  him  was  compelled  to  love  him.  Con- 
trary to  the  fashion  of  the  time,  he  had  persevered  in  the 
custom  of  wearing  his  throat  open  ;  and  his  hair  pre- 
served its  natural  curl  around  his  head,  and  fell  in  thin 
locks  upon  his  neck ;  in  short,  he  dressed,  when  powder 
and  periwigs  were  worn,  as  gentlemen  dress  at  the 
present  day.  Although  strongly  and  well  built,  he  was 
thin,  and  his  pale  complexion  had  a  tinge  of  yellow ;  his 
eye  only  revealed  all  the  enchantment  of  a  higher  nature, 
and  kindled  at  every  thought.  His  conversation,  like 
his  writings,  was  fresh  and  original,  his  voice  musical 
and  well  toned,  but  tender,  and  its  Boightlandish  accent 
had  peculiar  charms  for  the  cultivated  inhabitants  of 
Weimar.  Added  to  this,  the  simplicity  of  his  natui-e,  the 
truth  and  warmth  of  his  emotions,  his  deep-grounded 
faith  in  humanity,  which  was  to  him  a  sacred  religious 
belief,  in  a  place  where  so  many  complaints  were  uttered 
over  a  concealed  egotism,  and  an  unconcealed  infidelity, 
and  his  appearance  must  have  been  like  a  day  of  sunshine 
in  a  dark  and  rainy  season. 

Madam  von  Kalb  did  not  disappoint  the  expectations 
of  Ivichter.  Her  imposing  exterior,  the  glance  from  her 
large,  dark  eyes,  the  strength  and  elegance  of  her  lan- 
guage, the  exalted  sentiments  by  which  she  made  herself 
known  as  the  pupil  of  Herder,  the  fire  of  her  emotions, 
that  might  consume  as  well  as  warm,  marked  the  first 
impression  as  very  powerful,  and  gave  her  the  name  by 
which  he  was  accustomed  afterwards  to  distinguish  her, 
the  Titanade,  as  the  original  of  his  Linda,  in  the  Titan. 

To  her  Richter  was  more,  even,  than  with  all  her 
U  p 


242  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

enthusiasm  she  had  dared  to  imagine  him  ;  and  from  her 
.previously  kindled  mind  resulted  the  purest  warmth  of 
friendship  and  good  will.  He  was  ftirnished  with  every 
gift  that  the  most  excited  imagination  could  desire,  and 
filled  the  ideal  that  had  hovered  before  her  enclianted 
fancy.  Generally,  fancy  is  employed  to  heighten  the 
real  impression  on  the  heart ;  but  in  this  case,  on  the 
contrary,  the  heart  followed  the  fancy,  and  loved  where 
that  had  idoHzed.  She  was  daily  with  him,  sent  him 
books  and  newspapers,  and  procured  for  him  the  smallest 
conveniences  with  the  same  solicitude  that  she  provided 
the  highest  enjoyments  of  life.  The  day  of  his  arrival 
she  introduced  him  to  Knebel.  On  their  way,  they  met 
Einsiedel,  and  they  were  no  sooner  seated  in  Knebel's 
apartment,  than  Herder,  his  wife,  and  their  two  boys  en- 
.tered.  The  reader  will  recollect  the  correspondence 
Jean  Paul  had  already  had  with  Caroline  Herder ;  as 
her  husband  and  Richter  met,  they  could  neither  of  them 
speak  for  joy,  and  Knebel's  eyes  were  also  moist.  They 
passed  the  evening  together,  and  were  quickly  the  most 
confidential  friends.  Herder  soon  after,  in  writing  to 
Jacobi,  said :  "  Heaven  has  sent  me  a  treasure  in  Richter, 
that  I  neither  deserved  nor  expected.  Every  time  that 
we  are  together  he  opens  anew  the  treasures  that  the 
three  wise  men  brought,  and  the  star  goes  always  before 
him.  I  can  only  say,  that  he  is  all  heart,  all  soul ;  an 
harmonious  tone  in  the  great  golden  harp  of  humanity, 
in  which  there  are  so  many  cracked,  so  many  discordant 
strings." 

This  little  circle  passed  every  evening  together,  and 
the  confidential  supper-table,  at  which  Caroline  Herder, 
rich  in  heart  and  intellect,  presided,  was  the  central  point 
of  their  union.      To   Jean   Paul  every  intellectual  and 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  Z43 

accomplished  woman  was  tlic  sun  that  ripened  the  fruit 
of  his  intellect,  and  imparted  the  beautiful  colors  to  the 
flowers  of  his  fancy ;  and  tlic  presence  of  Madam  von 
Kalb,  who  had  comjiletely  captivated  him  by  the  power- 
ful enchantment  of  her  character,  heightened  the  charm 
of  these  reunions. 

"Wieland  was  not  in  Weimar  at  this  first  visit ;  but  from 
his  distant  Alp  home,  where  he  now  was,  he  sent  him  the 
most  cordial  greeting.  Jean  Paul  looked  forward  with 
much  delight  to  his  introduction  to  Goethe  and  Schiller. 
Goethe  now  dwelt  in  his  own  house  in  Weimar,  and 
Schiller  in  Jena.  They  had  expressed  different,  but 
depreciating  opinions  about  Richter's  Avorks.*  Richter's 
unbounded  reverence  for  Goethe  had  already  been  ex- 
pressed by  sending  him  his  Quintus  Fixlein  and  Hespe- 
rus, and  there  was  not  a  single  work  of  Goethe's  that  he 
had  not  read  and  copied  w^ith  infinite  zeal.  With  this 
disposition  he  came  to  Weimar.  The  peculiar  reserve 
of  Goethe,  which  perhaps  arose  from  his  disposition  to 
hold  all  subjects  at  an  impai'tial  distance,  and  to  observe 
them  from  an  artistical  point  of  view,  drew  upon  him 
among  his  acquaintance  the  reproach  of  coldness,  and 
this  judgment  had  some  influence  upon  the  disposition 
with  which  Richter  approached  him.  Illness  and  domes- 
tic trouble  prevented  Schiller  from  welcoming  Jean  Paul 
with  much  cordiality,  when  he  visited  him  at  Jena.  Far 
different  was  it  with  Herder.  Striving  in  different  paths 
for  the  highest  point  to  which  humanity  can  reach,  there 
is,  in  minds  like  his  and  Richter's,  a  predestined  friend- 

*  I  cannot  pretend  to  understand  the  literary  or  political  dissensions 
of  the  time.  But  no  one  can  read  the  correspondence  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller  without  observing  the  disparaging  remarks  of  Goethe  upon 
Jean  Paul  and  his  works. 


244  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

ship,  "  a  clasping  of  souls  before  the  hand  is  reached  or 
met,  and  it  endures  from  the  first  moment  to  the  last." 

The  reception  that  the  Duchess  Amelia  gave  to  Rich- 
ter  was  of  peculiar  value  to  him.  When  she  -withdrew 
to  the  country  retirement  of  Tieffurth,  where  she  col- 
lected around  her  a  circle  of  distinguished  men  and  ac- 
complished women,  among  whom  was  his  friend  Madam 
von  Kalb,  and  the  Herders,  Richter  was  invited  in  the 
most  cordial  manner  to  join  them ;  and  here  they  formed 
a  mutual  high  esteem  for  each  other,  to  which  the  Prin- 
cess herself  gave  the  name  of  friendship.  This  sentiment 
she  extended  afterwards  to  his  family,  when  she  became 
godmother  to  his  first  child.* 

It  has  been  said  that  Jean  Paul  had  no  knowledge  of 
courts,  and  that  his  Princesses  were  drawn  from  imagina- 
tion ;  but  here,  and  afterwards,  he  was  collecting  mate- 
rials for  his  great  work,  the  Titan,  and  the  court  of  the 
Duchess  Amelia  imparted  a  deeper  and  richer  coloring  to 
the  beings  of  his  imagination. 

But  Richter  must  speak  for  himself;  the  reader  must 
not  be  deprived  of  that  mixture  of  gratified  self-compla- 
cency, childlike  simplicity,  and  warm-hearted  confidence, 
with  which    he    pours  into  the  ear  and  heart  of  Otto 

*  This  was  the  Dowager  Duchess  Anne-Amelia,  daughter  and  sister 
of  the  Dukes  of  Brunswick.  This  remarkable  woman  was  the  presiding 
spirit  of  the  court  of  Weimar  for  half  a  century.  MaiTied  in  her  seven- 
teenth year,  she  was  left  a  widow  in  her  nineteenth.  She  appointed 
Wieland  governor  to  her  son,  and  drew  around  her  a  circle  of  learned 
and  accomplished  men.  Her  palace  at  Weimar,  her  country-houses 
at  Tieffurth  and  Ettersburg  never  ceased  to  be  the  rendezvous  of  liter- 
ary men  and  travellers  of  merit.  A  tour  in  Italy,  which  she  made  in 
company  with  Goethe,  heightened  her  taste  for  the  arts.  From  her 
glowing  descriptions  of  Italj'  Jean  Paul  derived  the  knowledge  of  that 
country  so  exquisitelj'  employed  in  Titan.  The  invasion  of  her  country 
by  Bonaparte  broke  her  heart.     She  died  in  1806,  a  few  months  after. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  245 

the   delightful   incidents  of  his    three   happy  weeks   in 
Weimar. 

"  Weimar,  June  12,  1796. 

"  God  saw  yesterday  upon  his  earth  a  happy  mortal, 
and  that  was  I.  Ah,  I  was  so  happy,  that  I  thought  of 
Nemesis,  and  Herder  consoled  me  with  the  Deus  aver- 
runcus.  I  cannot  put  off  writing  till  I  can  send  a  letter. 
I  must  say  something.  Yesterday  I  went  at  ahout  eleven 
o'clock,  as  I  had  missed  two  of  her  billets,  to  Charlotte 
(she  is  sister  to  the  Bayreuther,  and,  I  believe  also,  mine). 
I  had  in  my  note  asked  for  a  solitary  minute,  a  tete-a-tete. 
She  has  two  great  things,  great  eyes,  such  as  I  never  saw 
before,  and  a  great  soul.  She  speaks  exactly  as  Herder 
writes,  in  his  letters  upon  humanity.  She  is  strong,  full, 
and  her  face  —  I  would  I  could  describe  it.  Three  quar- 
ters of  the  time  she  smiles,  but  half  only  from  nervous 
irritability,  and  one  quarter  she  is  serious,  when  she 
raises  her  heavenly  eyelids,  as  clouds  when  they  alter- 
nately conceal  and  reveal  the  moon  (I  do  not  trouble  my- 
self about  the  accuracy  of  my  expressions).  'You  are  a 
wonderful  man,'  she  said  to  me  thirty  times.  Ah,  here 
are  women !  and  I  have  them  all  for  my  friends ;  the 
whole  court,  even  to  the  Duke,  reads  me  !  I  dine,  for 
reasons,  not  with  Madam  von  Kalb.  She  informed  Kne- 
bel  of  my  arrival  (he  is  chamberlain  to  the  Duchess)  ;  at 
three  o'clock  I  went  again,  and  Knebel  was  there.*  He 
is  a  courtier  as  to  the  exterior,  but  so  much  warmth  and 

*  Knebel  was  tutor  to  the  second  prince,  Constantine.  After  the 
early  death  of  his  pupil  he  received  a  pension  for  life.  He  remained 
in  Weimar,  an  ornament  of  the  circle  which  ninile  that  little  court  the 
resort  of  the  intellect  and  genius  of  Europe ;  a  friend  of  Wieland  and 
Herder  and  Jean  Paul ;  living  in  philosophical  serenity  in  his  little 
garden,  a  stranger  to  artificial  wants,  a  contented  sage  of  the  school 
of  Aristippus.    He  died  in  1834,  at  the  age  of  ninety.  —  Mks.  Austek. 


246  LIFE    OP    JEAN    PAUL. 

knowledge,  and  so  simple !  All  my  male  acquaintance 
here  (I  would  it  were  not  these  alone)  meet  with  a  cor- 
dial embrace.  There  is  none  of  the  pitiful  affectation 
of  Hof ;  none  of  the  fear  of  being  out  of  fashion.  I 
wish  I  had  brought  my  green  gOAvn,  or  even  th^  blue 
short  coat  would  be  allowed.  Towards  five  o'clock,  we 
all  three  went  to  Knebel's  garden  ;  on  the  way  Einsie- 
del  *  met  us,  who  took  me  immediately  by  the  hand,  but 
he  could  only  say  thi-ee  words,  as  he  must  follow  the 
Duchess  to  the  comedy.  After  some  moments,  Knebel 
said,  '  How  gloriously  it  all  happens  ;  here  comes  Her- 
der, his  wife,  and  the  two  children.'  We  went  to  meet 
him,  and  under  the  free  heaven  I  threw  myself  into  his 
arms.  I  could  scarcely  speak  for  joy,  and  he  could  not 
embrace  me  enough.  As  I  looked  around,  Knebel's  eyes 
were  also  moist.  With  Herder  I  am  now  as  familiar 
as  with  you.  He  will  write  to  me  when  I  return,  and 
when  he  journeys  through  Hof  with  his  wife,  who  loves 
me  heartily  (she  is  a  modification  of  Von  Kalb),  they 
will  visit  me.  I  wish  it  were  possible  to  tell  you  all 
witliout  blushing.  He  praises  all  my  works,  even  the 
Greenland  Lawsuits.  He  looks  as  noble,  but  yet  not 
exactly  as  I  thought,  but  speaks  as  he  writes.  He  says, 
'  Whenever  he  reads  the  Hesperus,  he  is  for  two  days 
unfit  for  business.' 

"  As  we  all  sat  together,  I  said,  *  If  only  my  Otto  were 
here,  and  heard  us  ! '  Herder  loves  satire  infinitely,  and 
has  twice  as  much  irony  as  seriousness  in  his  conversa- 
tion.    He  asked  me  the  occasion  of  many  places  in  my 

*  Herr  von  Einsiedel  united  the  most  amiable  and  agreeable  char- 
acter with  engaginfT  exterior  and  manners ;  qualities  that  were  sur- 
passed by  the  integrity  and  kindness  of  his  heart.  He  was  chamber- 
lain to  the  Duchess  Dowager  Amelia.  He  wrote  several  pretty  tales. 
—  Mas.  Austen. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL,  247 

books,  and  gave  me  oppressive  praise.  Your  Paul  ven- 
tured sometimes  to  speak,  although  at  intervals,  in  the 
five  houre  the  evening  lasted. 

"  They  all  said  that  I  received  scandalous  payment ; 
that  for  the  Meister  and  Horen  the  booksellers  gave  five 
louis  d'ors  a  sheet ;  that  I  was  read  everywhere  in  Ger- 
many, and  that  in  Leipzig  all  the  booksellers  received 
commissions  for  me.  Wieland  had  read  me  three  times, 
and  Herder  said  Gleim  continued  to  read  all  day  and  all 
night.  He  spoke  of  Kant's  system  with  the  highest  de- 
gree of  displeasure.  Of  his  own  works  Herder  spoke  so 
slightingly,  that  it  cut  me  to  the  heart  to  hear  him,  so 
that  I  had  scarcely  the  courage  to  praise  him.  '  What  I 
erase,'  said  he,  '  is  the  best,  as  I  dare  not  write  with 
freedom.' 

"  In  the  evening  we  supped  with  the  Kalb.  They 
have  the  most  liberal  manner  of  thinking.  I  made  as 
many  satires  as  at  Hof,  in  short,  I  was  as  unrestrained 
and  as  lively  as  I  am  with  you.  By  Heaven !  I  have 
become  courageous,  and  could  trust  myself  to  talk  with 
twenty  gentlemen,  and  yet  more,  with  the  Burgomaster 
and  all  his  kindred.  I  have  not  told  you  one  third  part, 
but  the  bitterest  drop.  Otto,  swims  in  my  Heidelberg  cup 
of  joy.  What  Jean  Paul  wins,  humanity  loses  in  his 
eyes.  Ah  !  my  ideal  of  great  men  !  All  my  acquaint- 
ance with  them  only  increases  the  value  of  my  beloved 
brother  Otto." 

"  June  17. 
"  The  late  date  will  inform  you  of  my  joy-intoxicated 
life.  I  have  lived  twenty  years  in  Weimar  in  a  few 
days.  I  have  wholly  incomprehensible,  unheard-of,  but 
not  disagreeable  things  to  tell  you,  —  but  to  you  alone.  I 
see  no  possibility  of  sending  you  more  than  a  duodecimo 


248  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

of  my  universal  liistoiy.  I  shall  need  as  many  days  as  I 
now  should  employ  pages,  to  tell  you  only  this  division 
of  my  life.  I  am  happy,  Otto,  wholly  happy  !  not  merely 
beyond  all  expectation,  but  beyond  all  description,  and  I 
want  nothing  in  the  whole  world  but  you  !  only  you  ! 

"  I  went  yesterday  with  Charlotte  to  visit  the  Duchess 
mother  at  TiefFurth,  and  I  shall  dine  with  her  next  time. 
The  Duchess  is  worthy  of  her  Wieland  and  her  beautiful 
Tieffurth.  Of  our  conversation  I  will  tell  you  verbally. 
Madam  von  Kalb  is  in  correspondence  with  all  the  mag- 
nates in  Gennany,  and  in  connection  with  all  in  Weimar, 
and  I  could  see  everybody  that  I  wished  at  her  house, 
but  we  both  remain  every  evening  alone  together.  She 
is  a  woman  like  none  ;  with  an  all-powerful  heart,  incom- 
parable firmness,  in  short,  a  Waldemarin.* 

"  On  the  second  day  I  threw  away  my  foolish  preju- 
dices in  favor  of  great  authors.  They  are  like  other 
people.  Here,  every  one  knows  that  they  are  like  tlie 
earth,  that  looks  from  a  distance,  from  Heaven,  like  a 
shining  moon,  but  when  the  foot  is  upon  it,  it  is  found  to 
be  made  of  houe  de  Paris  (Paris  mud).  An  opinion  con- 
cerning Herder,  Wieland,  or  Goethe  is  as  much  contested 
as  any  other.  Who  would  believe  that  the  three  watch- 
towers  of  our  literature  avoid  and  dislike  each  other.  I 
will  never  again  bend  myself  anxiously  before  any  great 
man,  only  before  the  virtuous.  Under  this  impression,  I 
went  timidly  to  meet  Goethe.  Every  one  had  described 
him  as  cold  to  everything  upon  the  earth.  Madam  von 
Kalb  said,  he  no  longer  admires  anytliing,  not  even  him- 
self. Every  word  is  ice  !  Curiosities  merely  warm  tlio 
fibres  of  his  heart.  Therefore  I  asked  Knebel  to  petrify 
or  encrust  me  by  some  mineral  spring,  that  I  might  pre- 

*  See  the  novel  of  Waldemar,  by  Jacobi. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  249 

sent  myself  to  him  like  a  statue  or  a  fossil.  Madam  von 
Kalb  advised  me  above  all  things  to  be  cold  and  self- 
possessed,  and  I  went  without  warmth,  merely  from  curi- 
osity. His  house,  palace  rather,  pleased  me  ;  it  is  the 
only  one  in  "VVeLmar  in  the  Italian  style,  —  with  such 
steps  !  A  Pantheon  full  of  pictures  and  statues.  Fresh 
anxiety  oppressed  my  breast !  At  last,  the  god  entered, 
cold,  one-syllabled,  without  accent.  '  The  French  are 
drawing  towards  Paris,'  said  Knebel.  '  Hm  ! '  said  the 
god.  His  face  is  massive  and  animated,  his  eye  a  ball  of 
light.  But,  at  last,  the  conversation  led  from  the  cam- 
paign to  art,  pubhcations,  etc.,  and  Goethe  was  himself. 
His  conversation  is  not  so  rich  and  flowing  as  Herder's, 
but  sharp-toned,  penetrating,  and  calm.  At  last  he  read, 
that  is,  played  for  us,  an  unpublished  poem,  in  which  his 
heart  impelled  the  flame  through  the  outer  crust  of  ice,  so 
that  he  pressed  the  hand  of  the  enthusiastic  Jean  Paul. 
(It  was  my  face,  not  my  voice,  for  I  said  not  a  word.) 
He  did  it  again  when  we  took  leave,  and  pressed  me  to 
call  again.  By  Heaven  !  we  will  love  each  other !  He 
considers  his  poetic  course  as  closed.  His  reading  is  like 
deep-toned  thunder,  blended  with  soft,  whispering  rain- 
drops.    There  is  nothing  like  it. 

"  They  contend  here,  whether  Flachsenjingen,*  on 
account  of  its  location,  is  a  sketch  of  Vienna  or  Manheim. 
Wieland,  who  takes  it  all  for  sport,  said,  '  Flachsenjingen 
lies  very  much  scattered  about  Germany.'  I  send  you, 
without  shame,  these  signs  of  canonization  that  they 
draw  around  my  bald  pate,  that  you  may  relate  what  }ou 
please  to  our  friends  in  Hof.  I  tell  you  all,  for  you  have 
esteemed  me  too  much,  but  do  not  disgust  with  the  long 
story  in  Hof,  where  they  have  so  often  done  me  iiijus- 

*  The  location  of  Hesperus. 
11* 


250  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

tice,  that  if  you  were  not  there,  brother,  I  would  remain 
here. 

"  My  good  Caroline  has  taken  care  for  all  my  needs. 
Ah,  you  do  not  yet  know  that  I  lodge  with  Oerthel  in  a 
more  elegant  apartment  than  I  ever  had  in  my  life.  On 
Wednesday  I  came  to  his  house,  near  the  trees  of'the 
heavenly  park.  I  have  two  chambers,  better  furnished 
than  any  in  the  fashionable  journal ;  ready  prepared  let- 
ter-covei-s ;  the  newspaper,  of  which  I  enclose  one  as  a 
proof;  lights  in  both  chambers.  In  short,  every,  even 
the  smallest,  thing  is  cared  for,  and  I  and  he  live  like 
brothers.  We  laugh  ourselves  dead  at  each  other's  pe- 
culiarities. I  sat  yesterday  with  his  mother  and  sister, 
who  created  two  heavens  for  my  two  eai-s,  with  their 
singing  and  playing ;  in  the  afternoon  I  was  introduced 
for  the  first  time  to  a  circle  of  beautiful  girls.  There  is 
not  in  Paris  so  much  freedom  from  gene  as  here.  You 
introduce  no  one ;  there  is  no  kissing  of  hands ;  you 
merely  make  a  silent  bow  ;  you  say  nothing  before  or 
after  dinner.  This  is  the  fashion  of  the  world,  that  coun- 
try people  tliink  as  stiff  and  starched  as  their  neck-bands. 
Wliat  one  might  comi)lain  of  here,  is  painted  egotism  and 
unpainted  sceplicism  ;  for  this  reason,  a  soul  that  has 
neither  is  like  a  summer's  day. 

"  Unite  the  Fantasie  and  Hermitage  *  in  one  park, 
and  it  will  give  you  no  idea  of  the  simple  majesty  of  this. 
It  is  an  HandeVs  Alexander's  Feast,  and  Tieffurth  is  an 
adagio.  The  Devil  is  in  me,  but  I  cannot  get  away.  I 
count  the  days  no  longer.  Ah,  I  am  so  happy,  so  happy ! 
as  you  alone  deserve  to  be  !  .  .  .  . 

"  I  went   yesterday  to  see  the  stony   Schiller,   from 

*  The  Fantasie  and  Hermitage  were  public  walks  and  gardens 
in  Hof. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  251 

whom,  as  from  a  precipice,  all  strangers  spring  back. 
ffis  form  is  worn,  severely  powerful,  but  angular.  He  is 
full  of  shaq>,  cutting  power,  but  without  love.  His  con- 
versation is  nearly  as  excellent  as  his  writings.  As  I 
brought  a  letter  from  Goethe,  he  was  unusually  pleasant ; 
he  would  make  me  a  fellow-contributor  to  the  Horen  (a 
periodical),  and  would  give  me  a  naturalization  act  in 
Jena." 

Notwithstanding  this  courtesy,  Richter  did  not  repeat 
his  visit  to  Schiller,  and  his  intimate  union  with  Herder 
excluded  all  hope  of  his  bemg  drawn  to  the  party  of 
Goethe.  The  latter  wrote  to  Schiller :  "  I  am  glad  you 
have  seen  Richter.  His  love  of  truth  and  his  wish  for 
self-improvement  have  prepossessed  me  in  his  favor ;  but 
the  social  man  is  a  sort  of  theoretical  man,  and  I  doubt  if 
Richter  will  ever  approach  us  in  a  practical  way,  although 
in  theory  he  seems  to  have  some  pretensions  to  belong  to 
us."  They  were  never  friends.  Richter  could  not  con- 
ceal his  disappointment  at  the  character  of  Goethe's  latter 
poetical  works,  and  soon  after  his  retui'n  to  Hof  he 
wrote  to  Knebel  in  relation  to  one  of  them,  "  that  in 
such  stormy  times  we  needed  a  Tyrtajus  rather  than  a 
Propertius."  The  remark  reached  Goethe's  ears ;  and 
Goethe,  usually  so  indifferent  to  censure  or  criticism, 
showed  himself  deeply  susceptible  and  offended  at  this 
so-called  "  manifestation  of  arrogance  in  Herr  Richter." 


CHAPTER    XV. 

Madam  von  Kalb.  —  Letters.  —  Close  of  Richter's  Intimact 
WITH  Madam  von  Kalb. 


T  would  perhaps  have  been  excusable,  if  tlie 
humble  author,  who  left  his  home  with  his 
pack,  on  foot,  and  found  himself  in  less  than 
a  week  a  courted  guest  at  the  table  of  princes, 
invited  and  caressed  by  the  most  accomplished  men,  and 
the  most  beautiful  women,  had  been  seized  with  a  little 
giddiness.  But  his  principal  danger  arose  from  his  in- 
timacy with  Madam  von  Kalb.  She  was  somewhat 
older  than  himself,  and  at  that  age  when  an  accom- 
plished woman  can  exercise  the  utmost  power  over  the 
mind  of  an  imaginative  man.  She  was  living  in  an  un- 
happy union  —  or  rather  disunion,  for  they  were  rarely 
together  —  witli  a  husband  much  her  infenor,  and  at  a 
time  when  revolutionary  ideas  in  domestic  mannei'S  had 
infected  Germany  almost  as  much  as  Paris  itself. 

A  daily  exchange  of  notes  took  place  between  Madam 
von  Kalb  and  Richter.  The  morning  after  his  arrival  in 
Weimar  she  wrote  :  "  Have  you  slept  well  ?  Friendship 
has  prepared  a  home  for  you,  and  I  am  indeed  glad  that 
you  are  no  longer  in  a  gasthof  (inn).  Ah !  are  we  not 
always  in  inns  and  pay-houses,  where  everything  is  done 
for  us  from  interested  motives,  that  kill  all  heart  ?     You 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  253 

have  told  me  that  you  could  not  live  where  they  did  not 
sympathize  with  you  as  a  human  being.  I  understand 
you,  among  the  good  we  are  good,  among  the  loving  — 
happy.  Write  me  the  very  moment  that  you  will  come 
to  me,  that  I  may  not  wait.  All  waiting  destroys  me  ;  I 
would  rather  suffer  pain  of  body  than  of  soul,  —  that  of 
waiting.  I  have  much  to  tell  you  of  the  Duchess ;  2d, 
that  I  must  read  your  last  letter  to  Otto ;  3d,  that  I  am 
jealous,  &c. ;  4th,  that  Herr  von  Oerthel  shall  be  my 
guest  to-day,  if  it  is  agreeable  to  him ;  and  pray  him  to 
say  to  Ids  sister  that  she  must  come  in  the  afternoon.  I 
believe  they  will  not  allow  you  to  leave  them  to-day  ;  but 
/  will  let  you,  and  all  is  with  me  like  the  laws  of  na- 
ture, —  life  and  death. 

Life,  and  your 

"  CHARLOTTE." 

Paul  answered,  •ndth  his  longing  desire  to  meet  again. 
The  next  morning  Madam  von  Kalb  sent  the  following 
note :  — 

"  I  awoke  this  morning ;  I  awoke  about  dawn  ;  as  soon 
as  I  could  distinguish  the  colors  around,  I  longed  for  your 
answer.  But  I  could  write  before  it  came.  —  Ah  !  my 
God,  there  was  your  billet !  But  for  God's  sake  do  not 
show  yourself  to  others  as  you  do  to  me,  or  all  who  un- 
derstand you  will  die  for  you You  are  as  if  in  an 

apartment  of  glass,  from  which  you  can  overlook  all  with 
the  power  of  your  intellect ;  but  we,  —  we  are  no  glass, 
so  smooth  and  cold.  None !  none !  The  soul  loves  an 
ideal  representation,  the  heart  an  ideal  man,  and  would 
appropriate  him 

"  To-morrow  you  will  go  with  Bottiger  to  the  theatre, 
to  Herder,  to  Einsiedel.  All  the  world  will  have  him,  — 
all  the  world  ?     No  !  all  shall  not  have  him,  —  or  I  shall 


254  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

die !  I  shall  be  destroyed.  Then  can  they  have  him ! 
How  often  I  have  been  wounded  !  how  often  !  Ah !  only 
the  most  refined  refreshment  for  the  soul,  the  purest,  the 
warmest  enjoyment,  can  again  renew  and  freshen  my 
existence ! "  * 

Richter  and  his  devoted  friend  continued  to  write  to 
each  other  every  day  durmg  the  three  weeks  he  remained 
in  Weimar.  The  notes  that  are  preserved  are  upon  the 
passing  events  of  the  time,  and  could  only  be  interesting 
to  one  intimately  acquainted  with  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
and  the  eminent  characters  in  Weimar. 

The  influence  of  Madam  von  Kalb  upon  Richter  was 
happier  for  his  works  than  for  himself.  He  was  indebted 
to  her  for  that  knowledge  of  more  powerful  female  char- 
acters which  he  has  displayed  in  liis  Titan ;  and  he  seems 
to  have  been  impatient  to  hasten  back  to  his  solitude,  that 
he  might  treasure  his  impressions  in  his  book. 

The  first  letter  after  he  left  Weimar  was  from  Madam 
von  Kalb. 

"  To-day  are  four  weeks  since  you  came  to  Weimar, 
and  what  I  so  long  expected  is  finished.  Finished  ?  Ah, 
no !  If  I  never  see  you  again,  yet  I  shall  know  where 
to  find  the  being  to  whom  I  can  impart  my  most  secret 
thoughts  and  sentiments ;  that  which,  like  the  ephemera, 
existed  only  with  the  sun,  and  in  the  evening  was  gone, 
holds  now  a  second  and  longer  life,  and  I  can  say  to  those 
who  misunderstand  and  correct  me,  to  me  also  the  treas- 
ure of  his  mind  is  confidentially  imparted. 

"  On  Monday  evening  we  were,  as  I  have  already  writ- 
ten to  you,  at  Herr  von  Knebel's.  I  spoke  little,  and  yet 
too  much.  There  are  very  few  men  that,  when  I  talk 
with  them,  elevate  and  improve  my  spiritual  nature  ;  and 

*  I  give  only  extracts  from  these  billets. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  255 

•witli  these  it  is  better  that  I  should  not  speak ;  and  by 
others  I  cannot  make  myself  understood.  Knebel  talked 
much  of  annihilation. 

"  I  came  to  Jena  in  the  middle  of  the  week,  to  visit 
Schiller,  who  gave  me  his  poem  for  you.  I  believe  it  has 
wounded  him  that  you  did  not  visit  him  again.  I  have 
yet  received  no  letter  from  you,  and  to-day  is  Monday, 
the  11th.  Say  many  beautiful  things  from  me  to  Otto. 
Fai'ewell !  How  often  have  I  thought  of  you,  —  how 
often !  for  to  you  I  can  say  all  that  I  think,  and  even  my 
anticipations  will  be  like  certainty.  Farewell !  how  will 
be  the  first  letter  I  shall  receive  from  you  ?  " 

Paul  had  waited  eight  days.  How  was  his  answer  to 
this  letter :  "  Time  has  crept  over  the  last  eight  days  with 
cold,  wet  wings,  without  one  swift  feather.  I  cannot  for- 
get my  friend,  I  cannot  do  without  her;  I  cannot  bear 
that  a  heart  I  would  hold  as  my  own  should  be  melted 
without  individual  form  into  the  whole  transparent  mass 
of  the  public  heart 

"  Nothing  makes  me  so  indulgent  and  mild  as  a  fault. 
I  am  not  accustomed  to  have  my  inmost  soul  wounded, 
therefore  its  bleeding  imparts  a  new  and  more  tender  life. 
Distance  consecrates  the  soul  and  warms  the  heart  anew. 
If  my  eye  should  again  sink  into  thine,  if  I  should  again 
dare  to  shed  tears  in  your  presence,  yet  our  hearts  and 
souls  shall  remain  unveiled  to  each  othei'. 

"  Upon  your  bii-thday  I  will  ascend  a  high  mountain, 
and,  looking  upon  the  sun  that  sinks  down  in  the  direction 
of  your  plain,  I  will  think  of  your  life.  Look  you  at  the 
same  moment  upon  this  glowing,  sinking  orb,  and  be  cer- 
tain that  I  am  thinking  of  you,  that  I  count  the  clouds  of 
your  shadowed  life,  and  weep  anew  for  all  your  deep  sor- 
rows.   I  will  pray,  when  I  think  of  your  heart  so  crushed 


25.6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

as  if  it  had  been  tlirowai  from  rock  to  rock  in  tlie  past.  — - 
O,  good  Destiny  !  Avill  I  pray,  give  this  weary  soul  a  ten- 
der, green  repose  ;  rend  not  asunder  again  the  hardly  yet 
united  parts  of  her  wounded  heart.  Give  her  calmness 
of  soul  and  a  gentle  life's  course,  accompanied  by  conge- 
nial beings,  and  rest,  —  rest !  Oh,  I  shall  be  eloqueiat  on 
your  birthday,  and  my  tongue  shall  stream  as  my  eyes, 
and  overflow  with  wishes  ;  and  when  I  am  silent,  and 
suik  down  with  panting  heart  upon  your  beloved  hand, 
my  heart  will  be  fuller,  not  lio;hter. 

It  appears  from  this  letter,  that  Richter  felt  for  this 
lady  the  most  profound  pity,  as  well  as  the  more  enthu- 
siastic sentiment  of  admiration  ;  but  he  had  the  strength 
of  mind  to  leave  her,  and  to  resist  what  has  been  so  often 
fatal  to  genius  of  the  highest  order,  —  the  seducing  fas- 
cinations of  rank  and  wealth,  in  the  midst  of  intellectual 
refinement  and  luxury.  He  returned  to  his  poor  home, 
and  to  his  narrow-minded  mother,  but  rich  in  new  ideas 
and  materials  for  his  great  work. 

He  was  followed  by  so  many  letters  of  admiration  and 
interest,  that  the  wish,  expressed  earlier,  that  all  the 
world  Avould  correspond  with  him,  seemed  to  be  almost 
literally  fulfilling.  The  individuality  of  character  is  so 
strong  in  the  works  of  Jean  Paul,  that  eveiy  reader  feels 
as  if  they  were  written  expressly  for  him,  and  wishes  to 
thank  the  author  as  if  for  a  personal  favor. 

Among  the  letters  that  touched  him  most  deeply  was 
one  from  a  Madam  Fisher,  who  told  him  she  had  sent 
her  copy  of  Hesperus  to  the  state  prisoners  in  the  fortress 
of  Spandaw  ;  and  described,  in  lively  colors,  the  consola- 
tion they  had  derived  from  it.  The  same  lady,  with  her 
husband,  visited  his  mother's  house  with  the  hope  of  see- 


LIFE.OF    JEAN    PAUL.  257 

ing  him,  while  he  was  absent  at  Bayreuth  ;  and  we  need 
no  longer  blush  for  the  American  habit  of  pilfering  relics, 
when  we  leam  that  this  enthusiastic  pair  secreted  and 
carried  away  from  Paul's  writing-table  his  worn-out  pens. 

Another  letter  is  from  the  pastor  of  Anhalt-Zerbst,  en- 
closing a  letter  and  a  purse  beautifully  net  with  gold 
thread,  from  a  lady  who  wished  to  remain  unknown.  The 
unknown  was  afterwards  discovered  to  be  the  Princess 
Anhalt-Zerbst.  Paul's  answer  is  too  characteristic  to  be 
omitted. 

"  .  .  .  .  May  some  good  genius  open  the  cloud  through 
which  your  haiid  only,  although  full  of  gifts,  has  been 
reached  to  me,  and  show  me  the  concealed  angel.  Your 
sex  and  your  worth  predict  to  me  the  common  fate  of  a 
tender  exotic  belonging  to  a  warmer  climate,  whose  root 
and  stem  are  planted  in  the  winter  of  reality,  and  whose 
beautiful  flower  only  the  forcing-house  of  Poetiy  can 
bring  to  blossom.  Is  it  so  ?  Then  only  the  wish  remains, 
that  all  your  blossoms  may  find  their  spring,  all  your  fruit 

its  sun The  inward  nature  finds  all  that  it  longs  for 

in  hope  and  virtue,  and  if  it  seeks  more  in  the  present 
and  in  reality,  it  finds  only  wounds." 

Richter  was  aware  that  a  strenuous  industry  was  neces- 
sary to  banish  that  longing  for  "Weimar  that  was  beating 
at  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  and  that  was  kept  intensely 
alive  by  his  letters  from  Madam  von  Kalb.  But  there 
was  a  voice  of  warning  as  well  as  of  wooing  in  these 
letters.  She  wrote  to  him  in  November  of  this  year, 
1796:  — 

"  It  is  well  that  you  not  only  come  in  a  short  time,  but 
that  we  should  decide  upon  your  residence  here.  The 
Herders'  life  is  turned  within  themselves,  and  become 
altogether  recluse ;  but  with  what  joy   will  they  admit 


258  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

you.  Your  residence  will  bring  them  new  refreshment. 
"Wieland  will  rejoice,  and  there  are  many  others.  I  think 
of  the  spring  like  a  bird  that  is  then  to  be  released  from 
prison.  Herder,  Wieland,  Knebel,  Einsiedel,  and  my 
Littleness  will  form  your  society.  What  need  you  more  ? 
A  dwelling  ?  That  your  friends  will  furnish  you  ;'  they 
can  do  it  without  trouble.  Yes,  you  can  have  a  house 
already  furnished,  either  Knebel's  dwelling  in  the  mar- 
ket, or  his  garden  house.  For  your  coffee,  the  waiter 
will  furnish  it ;  and  if  you  wUl  dine  at  home,  as  the  food 
from  a  restorator's,  if  long  continued,  would  injure  your 
health,  you  will  permit  me  the  pleasure  of  sending  you 
your  dinner.  I  have  thought  it  all  out ;  and  even  if  you 
pay  for  your  house,  I  can  promise  you  that  three  months 
will  not  cost  you  more  than  ten  rix-doUars.  If  at  present 
you  are  without  money,  your  friends  here  can  lend  you 
some  hundreds  of  dollars.  And  what  if  it  were  forever ! 
Of  what  use  is  our  trumpery,  if  our  friends  cannot  enjoy 
it  with  us  ?  I  despise  those  that  are  wooed  by  princes 
and  pensions,  but  I  despise  those  much  more  who  have 
not  the  heart  to  take  anything  from  a  friend. 

"  I  pray  you  go  to  no  court,  or  the  like.  Hold  your- 
self high,  and  avoid  all  situations  of  the  kind.  Man  is 
oppressed  there,  and  learns  that  all  is  empty,  and  at  last 
repents.  Princes  esteem  only  those  who  can  do  without 
them.  But  /  do  not,  therefore,  esteem  those  who  make 
satires  upon  courts  for  it  is  not  possible  that  it  can  be 

otherwise What   have  I  yet  to   say  ?     Ah,   not 

much.  Be  wise  as  Minerva  and  happy  as  Apollo !  Do 
not  smile,  —  you  smile  too  beautifully  !  The  tones  that 
your  spirit  yields  are  sweeter  without  words  than  the 
sounds  of  the  harmonica." 

To  this  truly  feminine  letter,  Richter  answered  :  — 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  259 

"  Your  letter  brought  your  sofa  and  our  evening  hours 
into  my  apartment,  —  May  into  December  !  It  is  right, 
perhaps,  that  a  •poor  friend  should  be  as  rich  as  his  richer, 
while  both  have  but  one  heart  and  one  purse ;  but  the 
friend  should  divide  his  bread  only,  but  not  the  ornaments 
of  his  table,  with  his  poorer  friend.  I  might  indeed  bor- 
row money  for  my  fast  days,  but  not  for  my  festival 

joys." 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Prefiice  to  the  new  edition 
of  Quintus  Fixlein  Eichter  inserted  a  species  of  myth, 
called  the  Ifondsjinsterness,  which  his  biogi'apher  asserts 
had  direct  reference  to  Madam  von  Kalb.  He  expresses 
very  fully  his  opinions  and  feelings  upon  female  purity, 
and  his  abhorrence  of  all  but  the  most  legitimate  unions  ; 
and  considers  every  marriage  in  which  the  purest  love 
fails  on  either  side  as  no  better  than  a  work  of  seduction. 

Richter  sent  the  Preface  in  manuscript  to  Charlotte, 
and  after  waiting  some  weeks  she  answered  in  a  way  to 
displease  him. 

After  tliree  years  of  correspondence  a  perceptible  cold- 
ness had  chilled  her  enthusiasm  for  the  Poet.  She  began 
to  learn  that  his  love  for  women  was  principally  for  the 
sake  of  his  poetry.  He  kindled  into  flame  and  enthu- 
siasm before  every  unusual  female  appearance,  and  as 
soon  as  the  unwonted  excitement  had  heightened  the  in- 
terest of  the  work  in  hand,  it  faded  and  went  out.  Thus 
Madam  von  Kalb  had  served  for  the  original  of  Linda  in 
the  "Titan." 

Madam  von  Kalb  appears  to  have  been  deeply  tinged 
with  the  modern  "French,  and  perhaps  German  {Esthetic 
doctrine,  that  as  all  purity  is  from  within,  the  external 
relations  of  life  are  of  little  consequence  in  a  moral  point 
of  view.     This  is  so  much  the  more  dangerous,  as  it  is  an 


26o  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

effort  to  conceal  from  one's  self  that  want  of  elevation  in 
which  nature  conspires  to  deceive  one.  She  avowed  the 
opinion,  so  humiliating  to  a  woman,  that  nature  should 
suffer  no  restraint.  She  says  in  her  answer,  "  That  relig- 
ion upon  the  earth  is  nothing  but  the  unfolding  and  eleva- 
tion of  all  our  powers,  and  the  disposition  that  our  ndture 
has  received.  That  the  creature  should  suffer  no  re- 
straint, and  that  love  needs  no  laws."  Henceforth  an 
estrangement  took  place  between  him  and  his  friend.* 

At  the  same  time  with  the  above  letter,  Madam  von 
Kalb  sent  Richter  the  first  number  of  the  Musen  Alma- 
nac, a  periodical  conducted  by  Schiller,  which  had  served 
to  increase  the  discord  between  the  ruling  spirits  of  the 
age  ;  Herder  had  wholly  withdrawn  into  himself.  This 
strengthened  Richter's  decision  to  remain  at  home  with 
his  mother,  working  with  unexampled  activity  upon  the 
new  editions  of  his  Hesperus  and  Qulntus  Fixlein,  and 
the  days  that  the  great  wash  took  place  visiting  his  old 
friends  at  Arzburg,  Schwarzenbach,  &c.,  and  returning 
only  late  at  night,  when  he  always  found  his  poor,  watchful 
mother  sitting,  after  her  hard  day's  work,  at  the  wheel,  by 
the  glimmering  light  of  a  poor  fire. 

*  See  Appendix  L 


PART  III, 


CHAPTER  I. 

Prince   Hohenlohe.  —  Madam   von   Krudenek.  —  Letters.  — 

"  JUBELSENIOK."  —  "  CaMPANER   ThAL." 


HAVE  omitted,  for  the  purpose  of  a.  d.  1796, 
concluding  the  account  of  Richter's  •^'-  ^■ 
intimate  friendship  with  Madam  von  Kalb, 
two  events  that  took  place  in  the  autumn, 
immediately  after  his  return  from  Weimar.  His  wide- 
spread reputation  brought  him  many  proposals  to  become 
the  instructor  of  young  persons  ;  among  others  the  Prin- 
cess of  Hohenlohe  came  to  Hof,  and  entreated  him  to  take 
charge  of  her  two  sons.  The  eldest  of  these  princes  was 
afterwards  the  celebrated  Jesuit  priest,  and  worker  of 
miracles.  The  delusion  lasted  a  long  time,  but  ceased 
before  the  death  of  the  prince.  His  fine  exterior,  gentle 
manners,  and  insinuating  voice  no  doubt  made  part  of  the 
miracle.  This  was  an  alluring  offer,  as  it  promised  Rich- 
ter  independence,  and  a  beautiful  residence  on  the  Rhine. 
He  answered,  "That  he  was  henceforth  determined  to 
educate  no  children  but  his  own  (his  books),  and  that  he 
had  so  much  to  say,  that  if  death  should  surprise  him  at 
his  writing-table,  in  his  eightieth  year,  it  would  be  yet  too 
early." 


262  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

The  other  event,  that  made  a  deeper  impression  upon  the 
imaginative  mind  of  Richter,  was  a  visit  from  the  cele- 
brated enthusiast  Julia  von  Krudener,  the  wife  of  the 
Russian  ambassador  in  Denmark.  This  singular  woman 
had  been  to  Leipzig,  to  visit  her  son,  and  came,  in  the  full 
bloom  of  her  remarkable  beauty,  to  his  solitary  resictence, 
as  she  said,  to  seek  a  comet  on  its  path.  Upon  Richter, 
whose  soul  was  always  thirsting  for  the  spiritual  and  ideal 
in  woman,  she  made  an  indelible  impression,  and  excited 
an  interest  that  led  to  a  correspondence  of  many  years' 
duration.  They  were  only  an  hour  together,  but  the  in- 
terest was  mutual.  There  must  have  been  something  in 
Richter's  person  and  manners  extfemely  fascinating  to 
women ;  for  the  impression  his  works  had  made  on  the 
imagination  was  always  deepened  by  an  interview ;  and 
there  was  some  reason  why  Madam  von  Kalb  should  tell 
him  "  not  to  smile,  and  that  the  tone  that  his  mind  gave 
without  words  was  sweeter  than  the  sounds  of  the  har- 
monica." 

Paul  said,  in  a  letter  to  Otto,  "  That,  unlike  as  Madam 
Krudener  was  to  all  other  women,  so  was  the  impression 
she  had  made  upon  him  different  from  that  of  all  other 
women." 

He  wrote  to  her :  "  The  hour  in  which  I  saw  you  floats 
like  the  evening  glow  still  lower  beneath  the  horizon. 
Your  letter  must  again  color  my  atmosphere.  You  came 
like  a  dream,  and  fled  like  a  dream,  and  I  still  live  in  a 
dream 

"  A  legend  says,  that  the  angels  had  created  men  like 
gods,  but  that  they  could  not  stand  upright  until  God,  by 
a  spark,  gave  them  souls,  and  raised  them  to  the  upright 
posture.  Most  of  us  are  still  such  prostrate  men ;  but 
in  your  soul  glows  this  sun-spark,  and  you  stand  among 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  263 

the  cold,  reclining  forms,  with  your  glance  still  turned  to 
heaven." 

Madam  von  Krudener  answered  :  "  Ineffaceable  is  the 
hour  when  your  eye,  the  sound  of  your  voice,  the  inde- 
scribable whole  of  your  emotion  in  expression  and  accent, 
established  the  sweetest  harmony  of  knowledge  and  feel- 
ing. I  know  not  whether  I  make  myself  intelligible,  as 
you  know  how  imperfectly  I  possess  your  language.  You 
will  imagine  what  I  think,  for  I  feel  with  indescribable  joy 
that  you  wholly  understand  me,  and  the  little  that  you 
said  to  me  was  penetrating  like  your  glance,  and  led 
directly  to  my  inmost  heart.  Oh,  how  few  men  can  un- 
derstand me,  and  how  sweet  is  the  jiope  to  see  you  here, 
and  to  open  this  heart  to  you,  to  show  you,  without  pride 
and  mthout  fear,  the  virtues  as  well  as  the  faults  of  my 
nature.  This  need  of  learning  the  truth,  this  living  ne- 
cessity in  me  to  grow  better,  this  thirst  after  knowledge, 
and  this  warm  desire  to  promote  the  happiness  of  men  ; 
this  expanding  love  that  glows  in  my  heart  and  breathes 
in  your  works,  are  what  makes  them  so  dear  to  me,  and 
convince  me  that,  through  your  friendship,  I  shall  be 
better  and  happier ;  and  that  to  you  also,  the  observa- 
tion of  a  noble  soul,  that  would  fain  impart  blessings 
to  mankind,  will  not  be  indifferent. 

"I  say  to  you  that  I  am  never  deceived  in  men  in 
whom  I  can  kindle  a  spark  of  emotion ;  by  men  of  low 
dispositions  I  am  often  offended ;  yet  who  remembers  the 
sting  when  a  gnat  fells  upon  him.  Such  stings  take  away 
the  injurious  blood,  that  inflames  so  easily  at  the  smallest 
wound,  and  from  wliich  ill-humor  and  misanthropy  are 
formed.  I  have  climbed  that  mountain  tliat  little  minds 
have  not  the  power  to  ascend,  and  the  echo  of  their  voices 
brings  no  disharmony  to  my  ears. 


264  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  Without  pride,  I  may  say  this  to  you.  Ah  !  I  cannot 
be  proud,  —  too  much  remains  yet  to  be  improved  before 
I  can  be  satisfied.  Gratefully  I  acknowledge  the  happi- 
ness, that  God  has  given  me  a  heart  in  which  only  the 
memory  of  the  good  and  beautiful  can  live  ;  and  that  has 
so  lived  in  the  higher  regions  of  virtue  and  frien^hip, 
that  the  possibility  of  breathing  in  a  lower  world  cannot 
exist.  The  hand  of  genius  seized  my  thoughts  even  in 
their  cradle,  and  thus  I  know  you  can  understand  me 
even  in  my  imperfect  language.*  .... 

"  I  thank  Providence  that  I  have  learnt  to  know  you. 
He  gives  me,  in  you,  a  new  and  powerful  assurance  of 
my  future  happiness,  and  in  your  tears  is  a  world  for  me. 
May  you  be  as  happy  as  I  wish  you,  and  may  the  pre- 
cious emotions  you  have  given  me  conduce  to  your  own 
happiness.      Remember,  meanwhile,  I  can  never  forget 

you. 

"JULIA  VON  KRUDENER." 

Richter  entreated  the  lady  to  visit  him  again  in  Hof, 
"that  the  little  blessed  island  she  had  tlirown  into  the 
humble  stream  of  his  life  might  not  float  away  "  ;  but  she 
did  not  return,  and  he  met  her  not  again  until  after  his 
mari-iage,  many  years  afterwards,  in  Berlin. 

INIadam  von  Krudener  did  not  make  a  favorable  im- 
pression upon  Richter's  friends.  They  accused  her  of 
vanity  and  ostentation.  From  the  course  of  her  life  it 
could  scarcely  be  otherwise ;  Jean  Paul  was  not  blind  to 
the  faults  of  any  one,  but  his  true  sympathy  with  all  the 
weaknesses  of  humanity  led  him  always  to  place  the  good 
and  bad  qualities  in  opposite  scales  ;  and  lie  said  of  her, 
what  might  be  said  of  many  ostentatious  women,  "  That  it 

*  French  was  the  native  tongue  of  Madam  von  Krudenor. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  265 

was  not  vanity  that  made  her  an  artist,  but  the  enjoyment 
of  the  representation." 

From  the  subsequent  life  of  Madam  von  Krudener,  it 
will  appear  that  Richter  w^as  not  so  penetrating  as  his 
friends  in  the  estimation  of  her  character.* 

Richter's  spirits,  after  denying  himself  a  return  to  the 
"Weimar  Eden,  and  furtlier  intimacy  with  Madam  von 
Kalb,  were  too  much  depressed  to  allow  him  to  pro- 
ceed with  his  Titan.  He  occu})ied  himself  this  winter 
with  two  of  his  minor  works,  Jubelsenior  and  the  Cam- 
paner  Thai.  During  the  progress  of  his  great  work, 
upon  which  he  rested  liis  hopes  of  immortality,  he  kept 
himself  constantly  before  the  public,  and  procured  the 
means  of  subsistence  by  a  series  of  smaUer  works.  Like 
a  celebrated  painter,  he  worked  up  the  superabundance 
of  colors  upon  his  palette  into  smaller  pictures,  wliile 
his  immortal  work  was  yet  on  the  easel. 

These  works  differ  from  his  earlier  in  tliis,  that  they 
never  contain  a  complete  picture  of  character,  neither  is 
any  elevated  philosophical  nor  poetical  idea  in  life  or 
character  completely  carried  out.  They  are  mer.ely  seg- 
ments of  life,  and  make  no  pretension  to  a  full  delineation 
of  passion  or  event.  In  his  earlier  romances  almost  all 
the  characters  had  been  left  incomplete ;  the  reader  is 
therefore  rejoiced  to  find  the  author  taking  them  up 
again,  and  introducing  them  anew  to  his  acquaintance 
in  these  segments.  Balzac,  who  in  everything  else  dif- 
fers more  widely  than  the  antipodes  from  Jean  Paul,  has 
in  this  respect  the  same  peculiarity. 

The  Jubelsenior  is  the  beautiful  and  swnple  representa- 
tion of  an  aged  minister,  and  his  equally  aged  wife,  cele- 
brating the  anniversary  of  tlieir  marriage  festival  at  the 

*  See  note  at  the  end  of  the  chapter. 
12 


266  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

same  time  with  the  consecration  of  the  church,*  and  the 
introduction  of  a  new  young  pastor,  who  is  in  love  with 
the  adopted  child  of  the  old  people.  "  The  aged  pair, 
bowing  under  the  gate  of  death  that  leads  them  to  another 
world,  will  not  withdraw  their  hands  from  each  other,  but 
keep  them  constantly  clasped  over  the  cold  gravestone. 
....  They  celebrate  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  their 
marriage  festival,  with  the  re-warmed  fragments  of  their 
own  young  bride-cake." 

Jean  Paul  partook  deeply  of  the  religious  nature  of  the 
Germans ;  he  delighted  in  all  these  humble,  simple  relig- 
ious ceremonies  ;  and  he  awoke  the  gratitude  of  many  an 
old  man  and  many  an  aged  matron  with  his  intimate  sym- 
pathy with  their  well-remembered  feelings,  and  the  high 
esteem  he  ever  paid  to  the  silent  men  that  the  loud  young 
century  had  forgotten.  The  love  of  the  young  people  is 
also  mingled  in  the  liistory,  and  makes  a  low,  under,  but 
sweet  tone  in  the  piece. 

The  Campaner  Thai,  or  proofs  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  is  one  of  the  most  purely  serious  and  poetically  beau- 
tiful of  all  the  author's  minor  works.  It  was  suggested  by 
his  friend  Charlotte  von  Kalb's  saying  that  she  sometimes 
felt  doubts  overshadowing  her  mind  when  she  thought  of 
annihilation  ;  and  as  he  had  written  the  former  letter 
on  immortality  for  Helena's,  he  wrote  this  for  her  con- 
solation. 

In  his  intercourse  with  educated  women,  Richter  had 
found  that  in  proportion  as  they  were  refined  and  thought- 
ful they  were  pained  with  doubt  upon  this  great  consola- 
tion of  humanity,  —  a  future  existence  of  tlie  soul.  He 
somewhere  says,  "  That  he  never  heard  a  cultivated  woman 

*  A  church  consecration  is  one  of  the  principal  country  celebrations 
in  Oormany. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  267 

speuk  of  meeting  again  with  her  lost  friends  without  de- 
tecting at  the  same  time  an  almost  imperceptible  sigh 
of  doubt."  * 

lie  did  not  write  to  convert  the  infidel,  but  to  establish 
the  wavering  faith  of  the  doubtful :  "  As  the  plants  that 
grow  upon  the  margin  of  a  stream  are  as  much  refreshed 
by  a  summer  shower  as  those  whose  roots  are  planted  in 
the  dusty  highway  of  life." 

I  feel  that  no  justice  could  be  done  to  this  beautiful 
work  by  such  an  analysis  as  I  could  give,  and  that  even 
my  highest  praise  would  be  inadequate  to  express  its 
merits.f 

This  chapter  cannot  be  more  appropriately  closed  than 
with  a  letter  from  Caroline  Herder,  in  which  she  has 
singularly  anticipated  the  definition  of  the  Romantic, 
which  was  afterwards  given  in  the  Foreign  Quarterly 
Revieic.  It  is  written  after  receiving  the  Campaner 
Thai  from  the  author. 

"  I  require,  indeed,  the  pen  of  an  angel  to  relate  the 
thousand-fold  obstacles  that  have  prevented  me,  dear,  un- 
forgotten  friend,  from  writing  to  you.  I  dare  not  give 
you  circumstantially  the  Litany  of  my  own  little  miseries, 
that  united  make  the  great  cause  of  my  silence.  My  eyes 
suffer,  and  since  some  years  my  health  also,  so  that  I  have 
to  prescribe  for  myself  a  severe  diet  in  writing.  I  rely  so 
securely  upon  our  union  in  the  world  of  spirits,  I  am  so 
certain  that  you  think  of  us,  and  speak  to  us,  as  we  to 
you,  without  visible  signs ;  yet  visible  signs  of  the  sacra- 
ment of  love  are  beautiful,  as  I  felt  deeply  when  I  re- 
ceived your  dear  letter  with  the  Campaner  Thai. 

"  Ah,  we  owe  you  thanks  for  Hesperus  also.     If  my 

*  I  quote  from  memory,  not  Laving  the  book  at  hand, 
t  Appendix  IV. 


268  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

husband  were  not  so  slavishly  chained,  you  had  heard 
from  him  before  this,  upon  Hesperus.  The  whole  building 
is,  as  it  were,  filled  with  choice  sacred  pictures,  and  we 
linger  to  strengthen,  elevate,  and  delight  the  spirit.  We 
might  seize  the  whole  at  once,  but  we  are  unwilling  under 
a  thousand  emotions  not  to  dwell  upon  each,  and  the'rich- 
ness  of  ornament  distracts  our  attention. 

"  If  you  have  ever  seen  the  Minster  at  Strasburg,*  you 
will  understand  me,  and  not  misinterpret  this  comparison. 
Perhaps  the  soul  of  that  great  architect  has  returned,  with 
you,  to  earth ;  and,  as  at  this  time  pictures  in  stone  are 
not  so  essential  to  us  as  spiritual  representations,  he  builds 
with  other  naaterials  than  stone  and  marble,  but  in  the 
taste  of  that  time. 

"  We  look  for  Titan  with  the  utmost  impatience." 

* 
Note.  —  The  Baroness  Krudener  was  educated  in  Paris,  where  her 
father's  house  was  the  resort  of  men  of  talents,  and  lier  beauty  and  wit 
were  much  admired.  In  her  fourteenth  year  she  was  married  to  Barou 
Krudener,  who  was  more  than  double  her  age,  and  accompanied  him 
to  Russia,  where  he  was  sent  as  ambassador.  Madam  Krudener,  placed 
in  the  first  circles,  and  remarkable  for  wit  and  beauty,  was  surrounded 
by  admirers  ;  but  she  was  not  happy.  Her  liveliness  of  temperament 
led  her  into  levities,  which  caused  a  divorce  from  her  husband,  and 
she  returned  to  her  father's  house  in  Riga.  Riga  did  not  satisfy  her. 
She  removed  to  Paris,  and  lived  alternately  at  Paris  and  Petersburg. 
She  was  afterwards  attached  to  the  court  of  the  beautiful  Queen  of 
Prussia  ;  and,  sharing  her  misfortunes,  her  mind  turned  from  the 
pleasures  of  the  world  to  the  subject  of  religion.  She  was  now  at- 
tracted by  the  principles  of  the  Moravians,  and  again  went  to  Paris, 
where  she  found  many  disciples,  —  a  fact  easily  explained.  The 
higher  circles  in  Paris  contain  many  persons  accustomed,  from  early 
youth,  to  live  on  excitement;  who,  when  age,  or  any  other  cause, 

*  "  He  who  casts  one  eye  in  thought  on  the  Strasburg  Minster, 
and  another  on  the  Teynplcs  at  Pcestum,  will  understand  the  difference 
between  the  romautic  and  classical."  —  Foreign  Quarterly  Review, 
July,  1837. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


269 


sickens  them  of  those  of  fashionable  life,  Qy  to  devotion,  and  kindle 
again  for  God  the  burnt-out  coal  of  other  passions.  She  was  after- 
wards connected  with  the  mystical  Jung  Stilling.  In  1814  she  was  in 
Paris,  much  connected  with  the  allied  sovereigns,  and  is  said  to  have 
had  great  influence  upon  the  Emperor  Alexander.  At  this  time  she 
had  prayer-meetings,  attended  by  all  the  distinguished  persons  in 
Paris;  where  she  was  seen  in  the  backgroiind,  in  the  dress  of  a 
priestess,  kneeling  in  prayer.  She  afterwards  went  to  Geneva  and 
Bale,  everywhere  followed  by  women,  poor  people,  and  vagabonds ; 
sometimes  preaching  in  the  open  air  to  three  thousand  persons.  She 
distributed  libenilly  to  the  poor,  but  excited  so  much  sedition,  that 
she  was  placed  under  the  surveillance  of  the  police,  and  at  length  sent 
to  Russia,  with  orders  not  to  pass  the  frontier.  She  was  forbidden 
also  to  go  to  Moscow  or  Petersburg.  She  retired  to  the  Crimea,  and 
died  there  in  1824'.  —  Conversations  Lexicon. 


CHAPTER    II. 

ElCHTER    VISITS     THE     FkAUZENBATH    TN    EgER.  —  DeATH    OF    HIS 

Mother.  —  Emilie  von  Berlespsh.  —  Removal  from  Hof  to 
Leipzig. 


N  the  month  of  June,  1797,  Richter  a.  d.  1797, 
found  his  health,  from  uninterrupted  -^t.  34. 
labor,  so  much  impaired,  that,  to  avoid  a  fit  of 
hypocliondria,  he  fled  to  the  baths  of  Eger,  in 
Saxony,  where  were  collected  some  of  the  most  distin- 
guished and  brilliant  persons  of  the  country.  Here  he 
was  destined  to  meet  another  of  those  enchantresses,  who 
drew  him  more  powerfully  than  either  of  the  others  from 
the  quiet  and  regular  flow  of  his  studious  hours.  This 
was  Emilie  von  Berlespsh,  a  young,  beautiful,  and  rich 
widow,  of  Switzerland.  Paul's  fancy  was  immeiliately 
kindled,  and  he  was  soon  so  much  the  more  captivated, 
as  the  beautiful  and  spiritual  woman  professed  to  love 
him  more  with  the  fancy  than  the  heart,  and  thus  seemed 
to  avoid  the  rock  upon  which  poor  Madam  von  Kalb  had 
struck. 

The  health  of  Richter's  mother  had  been  gradually 
declining,  but  he  felt  no  immediate  alarm,  although  her 
blessing,  when  he  parted,  was  more  fervent  and  tender 
than  usual ;  but  the  fascination  he  was  under  detained 
him  at  the  Baths  until  he  was  shocked  with  the  sudden 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  27I 

intelligence  that  she  was  no  more.  "With  bleeding  heart, 
in  which  remorse  for  his  absence  was  mingled,  he  re- 
turned to  Hof. 

It  was  to  Paul  a  painfully  sweet  recollection  that  he 
had  not  gone  from  her  without  her  blessing,  and  that 
when  he  saw  her  again  she  was  resting  peacefully.  The 
hand  of  Death,  unlike  that  of  Providence,  had  effaced 
from  her  pale  countenance  all  the  lines  of  sorrow  and 
of  years,  and  in  death  she  looked  again  young,  and  calm, 
and  happy.  His  mother  had  been  so  bowed  down  by  her 
life-long  sorrows,  that  even  after  Paul  had  become  the 
child  of  fame,  and  she  heard  his  praises  on  every  side, 
she  wore  the  same  subdued  and  humble  expression,  and 
denied  herself  all  demonstration  of  joy  at  the  success  of 
her  darling  child.  She  fulfilled  literally  the  injunction 
of  the  apostle,  "  to  rejoice  with  trembling."  * 

To  add  to  his  sorrow,  Paul  now  first  discovered  the 
book,  already  mentioned,  in  which  his  poor  mother  had 
kept  a  record  of  her  little  gains  in  her  midnight  spinning. 
He  wrote  to  Otto,  as  he  placed  the  faded  paper  next  his 
heart,  "  If  all  other  manuscripts  are  destroyed,  yet  will  I 
keep  this,  good  mother !  where  the  misery  of  thy  nights 
is  recorded,  and  where  in  weakness  and  pain  thy  thread 
of  life  is  drawn  out."  f 

For  many  weeks  Paul  was  not  able  to  write  to  his 
friend  Otto,  or  to  mention  his  loss  to  any  one ;  but  at 
length  he  fled  back  to  Eger,  to  find,  in  the  sympathy  of 

*  The  character  of  Lenette,  in  Siebenkds,  has  some  of  the  traits 
of  Paul's  mother,  and  she  is  said  to  have  furnished  him  with  the 
original. 

t  In  a  letter  from  the  Duke  of  Mechlenburg  this  circumstance  is 
mentioned  as  a  touching  feature  in  the  character  of  Richter.  It  shows 
the  strong  aflfections  of  his  heart,  that  he  should  have  been  so  tenderly- 
attached  to  a  character  like  that  of  Lenette. 


272  LIFE    OF  JEAN    PAUL. 

his  new  female  friend,  consolation  for  this  his  deepest 
sorrow.  Notwithstanding  the  fascinating  beauty  and 
charming  qualities  of  the  young  widow,  Richter  would 
not  have  been  so  completely  enthralled  had  she  not  also 
excited  his  sympathy.  She  had  lost  her  young  husband 
after  a  very  short  period  of  happy  married  life,  and  was 
left  childless.  He  wrote  to  Otto  :  "  I  have  found  the  first 
female  soul  that  I  can  completely  unite  with,  without 
weariness,  without  contrariety ;  that  can  improve  me 
while  I  improve  her.  She  is  too  noble  and  too  perfect 
to  be  eulogized  with  a  drop  of  ink.  She  belongs  to  that 
class  of  women  who  with  firm  steps  go  straight  forward 
on  their  path,  and  do  not  turn,  or  observe  the  gazers  on 
the  right  or  left.  She  has  more  love  in  her  heart  than 
in  her  eyes,  and  therefore  she  is  not  understood,  nor 
happy ;  and  her  clear  reason  and  brilliant  fancy  sui-pass 
the  glow  of  her  imagination." 

But  although  the  lady  began  with  the  most  Platonic 
affection  for  Richter,  it  soon  appeared  that  she  demanded 
a  more  exclusive  devotion,  a  warmer  expression  than 
Paul,  with  all  the  claims  of  his  imaginary  heroines,  could 
give  to  one,  and  those  violent  passions  and  stormy  scenes 
began  that  tormented  the  next  twelve  months  of  his  life. 
After  Paul  had  left  the  Fraiizenhath  and  returned  to 
Hof  she  wrote  to  him. 

" .  .  .  .  Follow  your  heart  when  it  speaks  for  me,  for, 
notwithstanding  all  your  goodness,  all  your  sympathy  with 
me,  there  is  something  in  me  that  will  always  doubt.  Do 
not  look  upon  little  hinderances  and  outward  relations. 
What  we  lose  at  the  present  no  eternity  can  give  us  back. 
There  is  for  me  only  one  real,  pure  joy,  and  in  no  future 
life  can  there  be  a  higher  than  the  intimate  sympathy 
of  soul  with  you.  Ah,  we  have  as  yet  said  nothing  to 
each  other. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  273 

"  To-morrow  I  shall  go  to  Weimar,  and  tliei'e  I  shall 
find  a  letter  from  you  !  Tliis  tells  me  why  I  have  such 
an  inexpressible  longing  to  be  there,  where  no  joy  except 
this  and  meeting  with  Herder  awaits  me.  Ah,  I  pray 
you  not  to  love  me  ;  that  were  silly  ;  but  I  pray  you  to 
view  justly  the  heaven  that  you  create  in  me  !  and  if  you 
can  estimate  it,  then  you  will  never  destroy  it.  Would 
that  I  could  write  to  you  something  more  of  thought  than 
feeling !  I  know  not  how  it  happens  that  I,  who  am 
always  nine  parts  understanding,  and  one  miserable  tenth 
part  heart,  forget,  pen  in  hand  with  you,  all  logic  and 
penetration,  and,  like  the  most  susceptible  girl,  could  dis- 
course of  my  feelings  through  whole  pages,  if  the  thought 
of  your  severe  understanding  did  not  stand  in  warning 
opposition  before  me." 

A  week  later :  "  I  have  received  your  letter.  The 
manner  in  which  I  received  it  is  a  circumstance  in  the 
history  of  the  letter.  But  of  that  another  time.  Breath- 
less with  joy  I, seized  the  letter  fi'om  the  hand  of  the 
bearer.  My  nerves  trembled  ;  for  some  moments  I  could 
not  read  it.  At  last  it  was  read.  But  now  —  I  would  I 
could  use  any  other  image  —  but  now  the  high-swelling 
waves  of  feeling  were  instantly  checked,  as  if  by  a  sudden 
frost.  But  wherefore  ?  That  never  ask  me  !  The  heaven 
from  which  I  wrote  the  first  part  of  this  letter  is  de- 
stroyed. 

"  I  have  been  some  hours  with  Plerder.  We  talked 
of  the  works  of  art  in  Dresden,  and  of  you.  Herder  said, 
with  the  most  generous  expression,  that  there  was  not  in 
Germany  (that  is,  in  the  world),  your  equal  in  affluence 
of  mind,  and  with  all,  so  rich,  so  pure  a  heart  Could  one 
say  more  ?  And  yet,  when  I  talked  of  you,  they  called 
me  an  enthusiast !     Further,  social  life  in  Weimar  is  as 

12*  R 


274  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

if  a  wicked  enchantment  had  dissolved  everything.  Love, 
friendship,  veneration,  the  enjoyment  of  art,  even  society 
is  here  only  a  sound,  a  shadow.  A  leaden  night  settles 
on  all  heads,  all  hearts,  in  apparently  equal  uniformity. 

"  Farewell !  When  you  are  a  little  good  to  me,  if  you 
would  not  make  it  utterly  impossible  for  me  to  wHte  to 
you  with  unreserve,  write,  but  never  again  in  such  a  man- 
ner to  your 

"  EMILIE." 

Richter  answered  :  "  How  could  I  take  from  your  view 
even  the  smallest  blue  spot  in  the  cloud-heaven  of  life  ? 
Nothing  is  so  painful  as  an  epistolary  misunderstanding, 
when  it  must  be  effaced  through  the  slow  post  rather  than 
with  a  glance  of  the  eye. 

"  I  stand  already  at  the  door  of  my  literary  cabin,  and 
look  at  the  opening  in  the  distant  prospect.  How  few 
men  have  a  life  plan,  —  although  many  a  week,  year, 
youth,  or  business  plan.  Men  in  their  movements  are 
without  aim ;  accident,  necessity,  desire,  press  one  upon 
them  that  they  take  for  their  own.  Gold-pieces  and 
medals  of  honor  draw  them  down  in  life,  and  the  outward 
dies  without  the  inward  being  thought  of.  The  folly  of 
human  wishes,  indifference  to  the  integrity  of  the  soul, 
the  half-fragmentary,  half-accidentally  fomied  inward, 
ideal  man,  where  one  half  is  a  giant,  the  other  a  dwarf 
makes  one  not  only  melancholy,  but  desponding.  Upon 
the  churchyard  of  the  whole  earth  should  this  universal 
epitaph  be  placed :  '  Here  lie  the  beings  who  in  life 
knew  not  what  they  would  have.' 

"  My  leave-taking  with  all  dear  associates  here  gives 
me  many  w^ounds  to  take  with  me  to  Leipzig.  May  I 
there  in  your  [)recious  heart  find  none. 

"  R." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  275 

Ricbter  had  at  length  decided  upon  the  removal  from 
Hof  that  is  indicated  at  the  conclusion  of  this  letter.  By 
the  death  of  his  mother  the  last  thread  was  broken  that 
held  him  there,  and  beside  the  whole  care  of  the  educa- 
tion and  maintenance  of  his  youngest  brother  Samuel 
devolved  also  upon  him.  He  was  a  youth  full  of  talent. 
Paul  resolved  that  he  should  not  suffer  as  he  had  hhnself 
for  the  want  of  a  helping  hand,  and  tliis  determined  him 
to  remove  to  Leipzig,  where  his  brother  could  at  the  same 
time  enjoy  the  advantages  of  the  University  and  of  his 
own  guardian  care. 

Richter's  residence  in  Hof  had  never  been  favorable  to 
his  genius.  He  felt  that  he  needed  a  wider  and  more 
brilliant  bu'thplace  for  liis  Titan,  to  which,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  demands  of  Emilie  Berlespsh,  he  would  now 
have  been  exclusively  devoted.  His  wide-spread  celeb- 
rity, and  the  homage  he  had  received  from  all  ranks, 
widened  the  distance  between  Paul  and  his  Hofer  friends, 
and  even  Otto's  jealousy  could  not  be  concealed  at  the 
marks  of  distinction  which  he  did  not  share  with  his 
friend.  Only  a  heart  like  Paul's  could  have  resisted  the 
flattery  on  one  side  and  the  reproaches  on  the  other,  and 
nothing  places  him  in  a  more  amiable  light  than  his  ten- 
derness and  forbearance  under  Otto's  jealousy.  He  says, 
in  answer  to  a  letter  filled  with  fond  reproaches  :  "  I  have 
within  me  a  humility  that  no  one  has  ever  guessed  ;  it  is 
not  a  victory  over  pride,  but  a  necessity  of  my  nature. 
The  judgments  of  others  deceive  me  more  through  immod- 
erate censure  than  through  immoderate  praise." 

As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  Richter  was  going  to 
leave  Hof,  a  voice  of  regret  and  lamentation  broke  out 
on  all  sides.  The  young  women  to  whom  he  had  been  an 
instructor  and   friend,  now  almost  all  of  them  married, 


276  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

would  fain  have  kept  him  among  them,  to  be  the  monitor 
to  their  children  that  he  had  been  to  them.  Vogel  and 
the  Saint  Anna,  Volkel,  and  his  old  instructor  Werner, 
(now  infirm  and  aged,)  all  poured  in  then*  lettei-s  express- 
ing their  warm  love,  their  reverence  for  his  noble  quali- 
ties, and  their  deep  grief  at  losing  one  wTio  seems  to  have 
been  regarded  by  those  who  enjoyed  his  intimacy  with 
sentiments  bordering  upon  idolatry. 

Richter  visited  all  his  near  friends,  and  took  leave 
of  others  by  letter.  To  Vogel  (when  he  returned  his 
books)  he  wrote  :  "  Dearest  friend,  I  go  as  an  inhabitant, 
my  brother  as  a  student,  to  Leipzig,  and  leave  forever  the 
place  of  my  youth.  Exactly  as  at  the  first  time,  when  I 
went  a  student  myself  to  Leipzig,  I  write  to  you  this 
second  time ;  and  with  the  same  anxiety  with  which  we 
see  the  successive  pieces  of  the  machinery  of  life's  stage 
shoved  and  pressed  through  each  other.  To  your  printed 
treasui-es,  dearest  friend,  I  am  indebted  for  the  greater 
part  of  my  Library  of  Extracts,  and  my  gratitude  for 
your  love  can  never  be  lessened.  May  Heaven  lead  in 
enchanting  dreams  the  innocent  world  of  your  life  before 
your  eyes,  and  shelter  you  from  the  night  air  and  the 
night  frosts.  May  you  and  yours  be  happy,  happy, 
happy ! " 

Vogel  answered  :  "  Infinitely,  inexpressibly,  beloved 
friend,  you  give  me  my  books  again,  and  take  from  us 
that  personal  image  in  which  you  have  come  to  us  from 
heaven.  I  weep  at  it  like  a  child.  But  why  should  I 
suifer  you  to  see  my  emotions  reflected,  as  it  were,  in  a 
glass,  when  you  can  read  in  the  human  heart  as  in  a 
book  ;  and  yet  the  less  need  I  color  them,  for  you  are 
holy  Nature's  first  and  dearest  painter.  Let  your  spirit 
still  hover  about  us,  and  let  now  and  then  a  drop  of  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  277 

old  friendship  fall  into  our  cup.  Thanks,  thanks !  noth- 
ing but  thanks  for  every  enjoyment  that  from  the  sea  of 
your  love  you  have  created  for  me.  Eternal  devotion, 
eternal  reverence,  eternal  tenderness  will  be  consecrated 
by  my  heart  to  yours.  Fare  you  well,  well,  well !  thus 
calls  with  me  my  wife,  thus  call  all  my  children  after 
their  friend. 

"  P.  S.  If  I  should  see  the  Gampaner  Thai,  the  ninth 
or  tenth  commandment  will  not  stand  in  my  way.  You 
have  spoilt  my  whole  reading  for  me,  especially  the  so- 
called  beautiful !  I  would  that  you  had  not  spoiled  it,  or 
that  I  had  more  money  and  fewer  books.  Send  me  often 
from  Leipzig  only  the  written  words,  Jean  Paul  Frederic 
RicJiter,  and  I  will  practise  magic  with  them.  Denuo 
vale  carissime  !   Carissime  vale  !  " 

We  hear  of  the  phlegmatic  Germans !  This  letter 
was  from  a  country  pastor,  advanced  in  years.  Let  us 
recall  the  words  of  the  former  letter,  written  just  sixteen 
years  before,  when  Paul,  as  a  poor  student,  was  setting 
out  on  foot  for  Leipzig  :  "  Excellent  young  German  ! 
from  whom  in  the  future  I  promise  thje  world  so  much. 
Fulfil  this  prophecy ! "  If  they  both  remembered  the 
letter,  how  well  seemed  the  prophecy  fulfilled  ! 

Richter  and  Otto,  although  living  in  the  same  city,  had 
written  to  each  other  every  day.  They  would  not  trust 
themselves  with  a  parting  intervicAv,  and  Richter's  last 
letter  to  his  friend  is  most  touchingly  tender.  It  closes 
thus :  "  My  last  word  to  you  is,  be  courageous !  Strive 
with  manly  power  against  sickly  fantasies,  and  enter,  as  I 
do,  always  more  courageously  into  active  life,  that  your 
talents  may  be  more  useful  to  others,  and  thus  to  your- 
self. With  this  wish,  with  these  hopes,  my  infinitely  dear 
friend,  I  close  my  youth's  time,  and  we  part  silently  from 


278 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


each  other.  If  man  can  bear  an  eternity  in  his  heart, 
you  will  remain  eternally  in  mine.  Say  this  also  to  your 
dear  brother  and  sister.  I  will  not  seek  such  a  trio  in 
the  world,  for  I  shall  not  find  you." 

After  many  other  farewell  messages,  Paul  closes  by 
recommending  to  Otto's  peculiar  kindness  a  poor'girl, 
who  had  sometimes,  in  her  illness,  served  his  mother.* 


*  Appendix  V. 


CHAPTER    III. 


Residence  in  Leipzig.  —  Letters.  —  Emilie  von  Beklespsh.  — 

Visits  Deesden. 


HE  residence  in  Leipzig  was  a  great    ^  p  ^.^gg 
and  decided  change  in  the  life  of  our       -^t-  35- 
Richter.     In  the  tumult  and  whirlpool  of  the 
collected  literature  of  the  great  book-fau- of  Ger- 


many, so  distinguished  and  so  original  a  writer  must  have 
become  one  of  the  central  points.  How  different  from 
his  humble  apartment  in  Hof,  where  the  only  sounds  that 
broke  upon  the  quiet  of  still  life  were  the  drowsy  whir- 
ring of  his  mother's  spinning-wheel,  and  the  unweaiied 
scratching  of  his  own  pen. 

On  his  arrival  in  Leipzig,  the  bookseller  Beygang  re- 
ceived him  into  his  house.  Richter  found  there  treasures 
of  new  books,  periodicals,  and  conveniences,  that  held  him 
fast  with  the  enchantment  of  novelty.  But  he  soon  went 
to  his  old  lodgings  in  the  Peterstrass,  where  he  found 
higher  chambers,  wider  windows,  a  more  ornamented 
stove,  in  short,  elegant  forniture,  where  the  "  commode 
was  better  than  anything  he  could  put  in  it." 

Instead  as  formerly  with  timid  and  concealed  steps  he 
sought  a  cross  hostess,  booksellers  ran  to  find  the  best 
victualler  who  would  send  the  best  dish  to  his  table. 
Where  he  had  before  paused  longingly,  unable  to  afford 


28o  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  grosclien  to  enter  the  concert-hall,  he  now  passed 
freely  where  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  heard  music. 
He  found  that  what  we  desire  in  youth,  age  sometimes 
gives  us  in  excess.  But,  alas !  these  joys  come  when 
for  us  they  have  lost  their  value. 

Many  families  admitted  him  to  their  most  intimate  do- 
mestic circles,  and  the  young  attached  themselves  to  him 
with  irresistible  impulse.  Weisse,  now  an  old  man,  who 
had  closed  his  literary  career  by  writing  hymns  and  A 
B  C  books  for  children,  and  to  whom  every  German 
child  is  indebted  for  his  delightful  "  Child's  Friend,"  took 
Richter  into  his  family;  and  his  table,  his  library,  and 
country  house  were  as  open  to  him  as  if  he  had  been  Ms 
first-born  son.  Paul  said  of  him  :  "  In  his  seventy -second 
year  his  face  is  a  thanksgiving  for  his  former  life,  and  a 
love-letter  to  all  mankind.  A  Leipziger  supper  is  always 
a  guest  repast.  Weisse's  daughter,  a  beautiful  and  accom- 
plished young  lady,  presides  at  his  ;  but  for  some  years  I 
have  been  dead  to  external  beauty,  and  only  alive  to  wliat 
is  living  beneath  it." 

But,  as  in  Weimar,  Richter  must  sp(?ak  for  himself 
Leipzig  was  tlie  residence  of  his  friend  Christian  Oertel, 
who  had  lately  been  married,  and  Richter  had  not  yet 
seen  his  young  wife.  He  says :  "  Oertel  had  already  de- 
posited a  letter  inviting  me  to  a  private  interview.  After 
half  an  hour  he  opened  the  door  of  the  next  room,  and 
his  wife,  as  tall  and  slender  as  Renata,  neither  beautiful 
nor  unpleasing,  but  with  love-gushing*  mild  eyes,  that 
steal  the  heart  away  as  by  enchantment,  fell,  although 
her  mother  and  two  sisters  were  present,  upon  my  neck. 
I  was  not  less  confused  than  pleased.  Her  voice  is  like 
her  eyes.     When  she  sang  the  forget  me  not,  and  some 

*  It  is  impossible  to  translate  liebequelknden  otlierwise. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  281 

Italian  pieces,  you  may  easily  tliink  where  my  ears  led 
my  heart,  and  that  the  tones,  floating  between  the  present 
and  the  past,  aflfected  me  too  deeply.  Wednesday  I  Avas 
at  the  concert-hall ;  there  were  over  a  hundi-ed  perform- 
ers. Beating  the  kettle-drum  to  a  parchment  thunder, 
organ,  female  singers  ;  in  short,  I  heard  music  for  the 
first  time  in  my  life.  As  the  animals  to  Adam,  were  the 
people  presented  to  me,  of  whom  I  could  name  only  Em- 
hardt  and  Dr.  Michaelis  and  their  sons.  About  eight 
o'clock,  a  man  came  to  me  without  a  hat,  with  tan- 
gled hair,  and  aphoristical  voice,  and  conversation  free 
and  bold.  It  was  Thieriot,  a  violinist  and  philologist, 
and  apparently  an  oddity,  as  he  took  me  for  one.  He 
begged  me  to  leave  my  lodgings,  and  come  and  live  with 
him. 

"  Kotzebue  has  visited,  and  invited  me  to  dine  with 
his  wife.  She  appears  to  be  a  good  mother.  Contrary 
to  my  expectation,  his  conversation  is  sleepy,  spiritless, 
and,  like  his  eye,  without  brilliancy.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  appears  to  be  less  wicked  than  timidly  weak.  Con- 
science finds  in  his  panada  *  heart  no  ground  firm  enough 
in  which  to  fix  her  hook. 

"  I  have  been  with  Platner  in  his  family,  where  I  found 
a  completely  accomplished  wife,  and  two  extremely  beau- 
tiful daughters,  and  many  distinguished  young  people.  It 
exceeds  the  power  of  my  pen  to  give  you  a  reasonable 
sketch  of  my  acquaintances.  Rather  would  I  describe 
for  you  the  refined,  not  too  ftiU,  but  costly  and  delicious 
supper-parties.  Yet  I  save  nothing  by  them,  for  I  must 
give  the  sei-vants  drink-money,  and  the  maid  who  lights 
you  down,  or  up,  even  in  clear  daylight,  demands  the 
offering  penny. 

*  Boiled  bread  and  water,  sweetened. 


282  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  What  I  promised  to  tell  you  of  Goethe  is  insignifi- 
cant. It  was  merely  that  he  judged  favorably  of  the 
Hesperus.  Further,  he  sees  now,  that  it  is  good  earnest 
with  me  ;  but  it  gives  him  cramps  of  the  brain  when  I 
throw  myself  from  one  science  into  another.  '  I  show 
my  knowledge  too  much.'  He  knows  a  little  also*!  but 
he  delivers  only  the  result.  '  When  I  am  elevated 
above  the  earthly,  even  to  heaven,  then  comes  suddenly 
a  poor  jest,'  &c.  In  short,  he  rues  this  side  of  my 
works. 

"  I  met  a  noble  Scot,  Macdonald  (celebrated  in  history 
and  in  Ossian),  at  a  stranger's  table,  and  at  his  own,  and 
found  in  him  the  twin  mind  of  Blair,  whose  sermons  so 
delighted  me,  and  whose  personal  friend  he  is.  No, 
there  is  not  in  the  three  kingdoms  a  nobler  or  more 
manly  breast,  under  which  beats  a  tenderer,  purer,  more 
piously  poetic  and  melancholy  spirit.  Thus  thought  a 
youth  long  since  of  the  English,  from  books,  and  thus 
he  finds  it  now.    He  reads  and  speaks  as  many  languages 

as  the  freed  American  cantons,  thirteen 'I  must 

tell  you  of  your  faults  ! '  I  have  already  once,  but  com- 
pletely wrong,  namely,  hinted  a  little  vanity.  That  can- 
not exist  in  a  mind  that  so  readily  performs  anonymous 
work,  and  withdraws  itself  from  praise.  Every  son  of 
earth  may  dare  to  be  somewhat  vain,  it  is  only  unper- 
mitted wlicn  he  conceals  it,  or  displays  it  too  much.  Ah, 
dear  Otto,  I  remark  from  your  letter  that  you  are  going 
back  into  your  old  errors,  and  that,  merely  because  I 
write  to  you  chronologically.  Written  complaints  and 
explanations  are,  on  account  of  their  longer  and  stronger 
false  impressions,  more  dilficult  to  efface  than  verbal.  Ah, 
if  we  could  be  only  one  day  together  in  Hof,  not  merely 
a  full  amnesty,  but  a  deep  Lethe  would  hide  the  little 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  283 

precipices  where  we  have  fallen."  *  ....  Fate  is  spin- 
ning for  me,  for  I  hear  the  whizzing  of  her  wheel,  a  net- 
work that  will  overspread  my  whole  life.  The  Berlespsh 
is  here.  I  find  in  her  a  soul  that  has  not  once  fallen 
beneath  my  ideal,  and  I  should  be  wholly  happy  in  her 
friendship,  if  she  would  not  be  too  happy  with  me." 

The  last  extract  bids  us  return  to  Emilie  von  Ber- 
lespsh. A  remark  has  been  made  by  one  of  his  biog- 
raphers, "  that  whoever  writes  the  life  of  Jean  Paul  must 
not  forget  how  much  influence  women  exercised  upon  his 
destiny."  The  reader  must  have  already  remarked,  that, 
although  this  lady  began  with  the  purest  Platonism,  she 
soon  complained  of  the  coldness  of  Richter's  letters ;  and 
that  he  never  appears  to  have  felt  other  sentiments  for 
her  than  those  of  admiration  and  esteem. 

Immediately  after  Richter's  removal  to  Leipzig  she 
purchased  a  country  house  at  Gholis,  a  short  distance 
from  that  city.  When  Paul  visited  her  he  found  a  quiet, 
retired  apartment  in  the  lower  story,  fitted  up  expressly 
for  him  as  a  study,  where  he  could  retire  if  he  wished  to 
be  alone,  or  seek  society  with  her  and  her  friends  in  her 
apartments.  Upon  all  occasions  he  met  a  glowing  heart, 
and  a  warm,  disinterested  friendship. 

As  a  female  author  Richter  placed  this  lady  above 
most  of  her  sex ;  but  female  authorship  was  more  rare 
in  Germany  at  this  time  than  even  in  England,  and  this 
lady  was  distinguished  for  a  lucidity  of  arrangement  and 
strength  of  expression  at  all  times  rare  among  female 
authors.  About  this  time  she  had  publislied  remarks 
upon  the  revolution  in  Switzerland,  together  with  Mallet 
du  Pans's  history  of  the  same.     Richter  himself  must  un- 

*  Otto  had  again  expressed  his  distrust  of  Richter's  affection.  See 
Appendix  IIL 


284  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

fold  her  history  in  connection  with  liimself.  He  writes 
to  Otto:  — 

"  Harpocrates,  lay  thy  finger  upon  thy  lips,  for  the 
theme  is  of  her,  the  i:)urest,  most  sj^iritual  female  soul 
that  I  have  ever  known,  but  the  firmest  and  most  ideal, 
and  possessed  with  an  egotistical  coldness  of  philanthropy 
that  demands  and  loves  nothing  but  perfection.  She  ful- 
fils all  the  duties  of  benevolence,  but  without  warmth  of 
feeling.  At  the  baths  of  Eger  I  treated  her  with  extreme 
reserve,  and  took  rarely  her  hand,  and  only  a  sympathiz- 
ing part  in  her  hard  fate.  She'introduced  to  me  a  beauti- 
ful, rich,  high-principled  young  lady,  her  friend  from  Zu- 
rich, for  whom  no  wooer  had  hithei'to  been  pure  and  good 
enough,  and  wished  that  I  should  marry  her.  Her  pro- 
230sal,  when  she  came  now  from  Weimar,  was  that  my 
little  winnings  and  the  young  lady's  property  should  be 
thrown  together,  to  purchase  a  country  house,  and  that 
she  should  live  constantly  with  us.  She  yielded,  when  I 
represented  the  folly  and  impossibility  of  such  an  arrange- 
ment, but  her  soul  hung  on  mine  with  more  wai'mth  than 
mine  on  hers ;  and  I  have  lived  through  fearful  scenes, 
blood-spitting,  and  swoonings,  such  as  no  pen  can  describe. 
At  length,  as  I  sat  one  evening  reflecting  upon  her  severe 
destiny,  my  heart  melted  within  me,  and  I  went  in  the 
morning  and  told  her  I  consented  to  the  marriage  with 
herself.  She  will  do  whatever  I  wish  ;  will  purchase  a 
country-house  wherever  I  like  best ;  on  the  Necker,  the 
Rhine,  in  Switzerland,  or  Voigtland.  None  perhaps  will 
ever  love  or  esteem  me  more,  and  yet  I  am  not  satisfied ; 
my  fate  was  not  decided  by  myself.  In  so  for  as  great- 
ness and  purity  of  soul  and  worldly  rit-hes  can  make  me 
happy  I  shall  be  so,  perhaps. 

"Ah,  Otto,  I  weary  to  write,  when  thou  art  so  long 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  285 

silent.  What  have  I  done  to  thee  ?  What  mist  has 
again  drawn  around  thee  ?  Farewell,  my  brother !  I 
long  more  bitterly  every  day  for  you.  Ah,  you  have  no 
excuse,  if,  in  an  unaltered  situation,  you  alter;  while  I, 
in  an  altered,  remain  the  same  to  you." 

Although  Otto  was  at  a  distance  from  the  fascinations 
of  the  lady,  liis  mind  was  so  completely  the  echo  of  his 
friend's,  that  he  had  not  the  power  to  represent  to  him 
that  by  such  a  mai-riage,  even  if  he  gained  all  the  for- 
tunes of  Germany,  it  would  be  no  atonement  to  a  heart 
like  Richter's  for  the  want  of  mutual  confidence  and  love. 
He  saw  on  Richter's  side  more  sacrifice  than  love,  and 
that  he  would  sufller  from  exclusive  demands  upon  his 
tenderness,  for  every  woman  that,  self-forgetting,  gives 
herself  wholly,  demands  at  times  answering  sacrifices, 
although  in  the  moment  of  her  highest  elevation  she 
may  imagine  that  the  certainty  of  possession  is  enough 
for  her  happiness.  Otto  also  avowed  that  miserable, 
self-deceiving  opinion,  that  a  marriage  without  love  was 
best  for  Richter's  literary  and  poetic  life.  He  would 
also  be  preserved,  he  said,  from  great  vicissitudes  by 
receiving  at  once  a  competence,  which  would  only  come 
by  degrees  if  he  married  a  woman  without  fortune. 
"  The  real"  he  adds,  "  in  marriage,  as  well  as  in  friend- 
ship, takes  something  from  the  ideal.  But  with  thee, 
if  it  must  be  that  thy  ideal  life  proceed  alone  upon  its 
heavenly  way,  yet  wilt  thou  steal  treasures  from  the  real, 
for  if  disappointed  love  makes  poets  of  prosaic  men,  how 
much  more  will  it  preserve  in  thee  a  poetic  youtlifulness 
and  a  pure,  unsatisfied  love."  Paul  had  therefore  to 
achieve  his  freedom  alone,  and  it  is  another  proof  of  his 
extraordinary  power,  and  the  elevating  influence  of  his 
moral  nature,  that  lie  not  only  reconciled  the  lady  to  the 


286  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

refusal  of  her  passionate  demands,  but  continued  with  her 
upon  the  most  friendly  and  coniidential  terms,  without 
further  question  of  love  or  marriage. 

Eichter's  next  letter  informs  his  friend  that  even  before 
he  had  received  his  last  his  fate  was  decided.  "  I  told 
Emilie  that  I  felt  no  passion  for  her,  and  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  us  to  live  happily  together.  I  passed  two 
inconceivably  wretched  days  ;  but  now  her  wounded  heart 
closes  again  gently,  and  bleeds  less.  I  am  free,  free,  free 
and  blest !  In  Hof  you  will  hear  of  it  most  extensively, 
but  my  justification  will  precede  the  censure.  It  depended 
on  myself,  after  my  confessiO)is,  to  form  with  her  a  social 
and  friendly  bond.  At  the  end  of  May  we  shall  go  to- 
gether to  Dresden,  Seifersdorf,  and  on  the  Elbe I 

should  be  much  happier  in  marriage  than  you  imagine. 
If  there  were  only  the  spring  of  love,  I  would  ask  little 
from  the  summer  of  marriage.  But  do  not  believe  that 
mine  is  like  your  sacrificing  heart.  Ah,  in  your  situation 
I  should  be,  through  youth  and  beauty,  and  through  great 
tenderness  of  soul,  completely  ]iapj)y.* 

"  Let  me  say  no  more  of  you,  but  only  soon,  to  you  — 
I  believe  I  should  for  joy  and  love,  among  you,  die  !  Ah, 
the  good  Paulina,  tell  Renata  she  must  ask  me  what  I 
think  of  her  silence." 

We  have  room  but  for  one  more  extract  from  the  Leip- 
zig letters ;  one  that  shows  the  childlike  simplicity  and 
o])enness  with  which  the  two  friends  wrote  to  each  other. 

"  I  celebrated  my  birthday  on  the  2Uth,  on  account  of 
the  birth  of  the  spring  ;  and  on  the  21st,  on  account  of  my 
own  birth.  From  an  unknown  hand  I  received  brown 
cloth,  that  I  already  doubly  wear,  as  a  coat,  and  as  an 

*  Otto  h:ul  long  been  attached  to  Amone  Herold,  but  through  family 
opposition  tlieir  iniii'riiige  was  delayed. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  287 

overcoat  for  tlie  Avinter.  Madam  Feind  gave  me  a  cup, 
with  hers  and  my  initial  letters  interlaced  ;  Madam  Bru- 
ningt  a  neckcloth  ;  and  the  Berlespsh  made  a  little  festi- 
val, with  rose-trees,  crowns,  etc. ;  to  which  Weisse  and 
some  other  friends  were  invited." 

Richter  was  now  pre2iaring  the  second  volume  of  the 
Titan  for  the  press,  and  was  also  employed  upon  the 
Palingenesien.  But,  in  the  midst  of  the  business  and 
pleasures  of  that  whirlpool,  the  Leipzig  Fair,  he  was 
seized  with  inexpressible  longing  for  his  late  home.  He 
fancied  that  this  heimweh  would  be  cured  by  the  sight 
of  the  green  spot  near  the  Lorenzo  Church,  where  his 
mother  reposed,  and  his  melancholy  dissipated  by  a  few 
days'  residence  with  Otto,  and  quiet  and  confidential  inter- 
course with  his  friend  and  his  friend's  betrothed,  Amone. 
After  fourteen  days  with  Otto  and  his  family,  who  re- 
sembled 1dm  in  tenderness,  and  in  attachment  to  Richter, 
he  returned,  strengthened  as  much  by  their  love  as  by  the 
repose  and  freedom  from  excitement  he  had  found  in  the 
little  city  of  Hof. 

Shortly  after  his  return,  he  journeyed  with  Emilie  to 
Dresden,  partly  to  escape  from  the  tumult  of  the  fair,  and 
partly  to  feel  the  full  enjoyment  of  Nature,  under  the 
double  charm  of  the  opening  spring  and  the  society  of  a 
female  friend.  It  was  Richter's  first  visit  in  Dresden, 
and  he  was  disappointed  in  the  social  tone  of  the  accom- 
plished Dresdeners.  But  in  Dresden  a  new  and  hitherto 
unimagined  world  was  opened  to  him.  He  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  Grecian  plastic  art.  A  new  sun  arose 
over  his  own,  and  threw  its  living  beams  upon, his  mind. 
He  wrote  to  Otto  :  — 

*'  As  yet  I  can  impart  nothing  to  you  but  the  hall  of 
Sculpture,  that  yesterday  like  a  new,  huge  world  pressed 


288  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

iuto  my  mind,  and  nearly  crowded  the  other  out.  "We 
entered  a  long,  light,  vaulted  hall,  through  -which  ex- 
tended two  rows  of  pillars.  Between  these  pillars  repose 
the  old  gods,  who  have  thrown  off  the  world  of  the  grave, 
or  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  reveal  to  us  a  holy,  calm,  and 
blessed  world  in  their  forms  and  in  our  own  breasts,  v^ere 
we  find  the  difference  between  the  beauty  of  a  man  and 
that  of  a  god.  That  excites,  though  gently,  wishes  and 
timidity,  but  this  exists  firm  and  simple,  like  the  blue  of 
ether  before  the  world  and  time  were  created.  The  re- 
pose of  perfection,  not  of  weariness,  looks  from  their  eyes 
and  rests  upon  their  lips.  Whenever  in  future  I  write 
of  great  or  beautiful  objects,  these  gods  will  appear  before 
me,  and  reveal  to  me  the  laws  of  beauty.  Noav  I  know 
the  Grecians,  and  can  never  forget  them." 

He  did  not  forget  them  ;  but  the  feeling  they  awoke  in 
him  was  a  reverend  timidity  towards  them,  and  despond- 
ing reflections  upon  himself;  as  the  sight  of  a  large 
library  always  made  him  melancholy,  he  felt  the  impossi- 
bility of  taking  in  its  treasures.  He  did  not  enter  the 
ball  again.  Richter  was  now  thirty-five  years  old,  and 
the  feeling  may  be  easily  understood  of  all  that  he  had 
lost,  while  his  mind  was  forming,  which  he  was  now  too 
old  to  repair.  The  sight  of  perfection  in  any  form  ex- 
cites in  susceptible  minds  the  longing  after  perfection. 
After  his  visit  to  the  hall  of  Sculpture,  Richter  wrote  in 
a  secret  pocket-book  :  "  Unknown,  unseen !  here  in  the 
stillness  of  my  empty  chamber  comes  thy  image  !  Ah, 
once,  only  once,  thou  All-loving,  send  to  my  thirsting 
heart  that  being  that,  as  an  eternal  pole-star  rises  above 
me,  and  that,  alas !   I  never  reach." 

This  visit  to  the  gallery  of  Sculpture  in  Dresden  in- 
spired him  with  a  desire  to  renew  his  acquamtance  with 


LIFE    OF    JEAX    PAUL.  289 

the  ancients.  He  says,  in  a  letter  to  Thieriot  afterwards  : 
"  During  this  northern  winter,  my  spirit  was  refreshed  in 
Attica  and  Ionia.  I  read  with  a  joy  of  which  Herder  can 
tell  you  the  Odyssey  and  Iliad,  Sophocles,  part  of  Eu- 
ripides and  ^schylus.  After  the  last  hymns  of  the  Iliad, 
and  tlie  CEdipus  in  Colortna,  one  can  read  nothing  but 
Shakespeare  or  Goethe.  They  already  affect  my  Titan, 
but  as  the  teacher  rather  than  the  father." 

Richter  had  abeady  found  reason  to  rejoice  that  he  had 
not  formed  a  more  permanent  union  with  Emelie.  He 
says  to  Otto :  "  In  future  I  shall  journey  alone,  and  on 
foot.  With  Emilie  I  found  upon  our  journey  too  much 
egotism,  and  too  much  aristocracy  towards  those  beneath 
her  in  rank.  I  have  again  made  peace  with  her,  although 
she,  not  I,  has  often  opened  the  old  wounds.  In  the  spring 
of  1799  {siib  rosa)  she  will  go  to  England." 

The  lady  went  to  England  and  resided  in  the  High- 
lands of  Scotland,  but  soon  returned  with  heimweh  to  her 
native  land.  Her  troubled  life  at  length  reposed  happily 
in  another  union.* 

Upon  Richter's  return  to  Leipzig,  from  his  Dresden 
journey,  a  deep  sorrow  awaited  him.  His  brother  Sam- 
tiel,  upon  whose  account  and  to  promote  whose  education 
lie  had  come  to  Leipzig,  a  youth  of  good  talents  and 
originally  of  a  noble  disposition,  had  fallen  into  dissipated 
company  and  become  involved  in  a  deep  passion  for  gam- 

*  Emilie  von  Berlespsh  was  a  distinguished  female  German  author. 
I  learn  from  Schindel's  biography  that  at  the  time  of  her  acquaintance 
vrith  Jean  Paul  she  was  divorced  from  her  first  husband,  although  in 
Richter's  life  she  is  called  a  widow.  She  visited  Scotland  in  company 
with  Sir  James  McDonald,  and  on  her  return  published  a  work  called 
"  Summer  Hours  in  Caledonia."  In  1801  she  married  a  second  time 
the  Rath  Harms,  and  went  with  him  to  Berne,  in  Switzerland,  where 
she  owned  estates. 

13  s 


:90  LIFE     OF   JEAN    PAUL. 

ing.  He  had  taken  advantage  of  Ricliter's  absence  to* 
break  open  his  desk,  and  abstract  from  it  one  hundred 
and  fifty  rix-dollars.  With  this  sum  he  departed  from 
his  brotlier's  lodgings,  without  leaving  any  clew  by  which 
he  could  be  discovered. 

Paul  suffered  inexpressibly  when  he  entered  Kfs  de- 
serted room,  and  discovered  the  rosebush  that  had  been 
his  brother's  care  faded  and  dried  as  if  it  had  been  long 
neglected  ;  but  he  suffered  infinitely  more,  when  he  found 
that  guilt  also  was  connected  with  his  flight.  He  wrote 
to  Otto  :  "  That  lost  and  deserted  one,  who  knows  me  so 
little,  and  who  will  never  guess  that  I  should  be  more 
softened  by  his  return  than  he  would  be  himself,  comes 
before  me  every  night  in  my  dreams.  Ah,  if  he  knew 
how  easily  his  hard  fate  might  be  mitigated  !  "  He  did 
not  return,  and  his  subsequent  fortunes  occupy  a  large 
part  of  Paul's  future  con-espondence  with  Otto.  Richter 
was  more  lenient  towards  his  poor,  unhappy  brother,  be- 
cause he  reproached  himself  with  too  mucli  indulgence, 
and  too  little  scrutiny  of  his  conduct  while  at  the  Univer- 
sity. He  never  saw  him  again,  but  he  settled  on  him  a 
yearly  sum  to  be  paid  through  Otto,  who  was  the  medium 
of  communication  between  them.  The  boy  led  a  wan- 
dering life,  probably  filled  with  suffering,  and  died  at  a 
military  hospital  in  Silesia.  A  strong  character  should 
never  have  the  complete  control  of  a  weak  one.  The 
weak  cannot  sympathize  with  the  strong,  and  to  conceal 
his  weakness  enters  into  a  series  of  deceptions  that  often 
end  fatally  for  the  weak. 

In  the  course  of  his  journey  to  discover  his  brother, 
Richter  visited  Halberstadt,  the  residence  of  Gleim,*  now 

*  The  reader  may  recollect  that  it  was  Gleim  who  sent  Jean  Paul 
the  fifty  dollars,  under  the  name  of  Septimus  Fixlein. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  291 

an  old  man  ;  but  the  snow  that  had  gathered  upon  his 
long  locks  had  not  extinguished  the  youthful  fire  of  his 
eye  or  shadowed  the  lines  of  his  noble  brow.  Gleim 
stood  at  the  door  to  receive  him,  and  he  was  equally  en- 
chanted by  tlie  old  man,  and  by  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Hartz  mountains.  Paul  wrote  to  Otto  :  "•  Gleim  has  the 
fire 'and  the  blindness  of  a  youth.  To  spare  the  old  man 
I  made  only  some  slight  remark,  when  he  compared  the 
sori'ows  of  Louis  XVI.  to  those  of  Chi-ist !  " 

He  returned  to  Leipzig  at  the  end  of  July,  regretting 
"  that  he  had  found  no  man  for  his  heart ;  that  he  had 
indeed  found  men  whose  pupil  he  could  be,  but  none  that 
he  could  take  to  his  heart." 

The  friendship  between  Otto  and  Jean  Paul  was  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  that  literary  history  has  made  known 
to  us.  But  the  frequent  outbreaking  jealousy  of  Otto,  at 
what  he  imagined  approaching  coldness  in  Paul,  was  the 
occasion  of  many  letters  that  disclose  the  generous  and 
forbearing  spirit  of  his  friend.  As  these  letters  would 
have  taken  too  much  room  for  the  body  of  the  work,  I 
have  placed  some  extracts  in  the  Appendix. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


ElCHTER  RETURNS  TO  WeIMAR.  —  WiELAND.  —  GOETIIE.  —  HeRDER. 

—  His  Attachment  to  Jean  Paul.  —  Philosophy.  —  Madam 
VON  Kalb. 


TTER  the  loss  of  his  brother,  Leipzig  a.d.  1798, 
with  all  its  noise  and  tumult  ap-  -^^^  ^^• 
peared  to  Richter  an  empty  and  deserted  city. 
Leipzig  had  indeed  never  fulfilled  the  expec- 
tations of  his  youth.  All  that  he  had  so  long  dwelt  upon  in 
solitude,  and  that  would  have  made  him  so  infinitely  happy 
as  a  youth  in  Leipzig,  came  too  late.  The  theatre,  con- 
certs, the  society  of  people  of  rank,  to  one  who  had  been 
the  intimate  friend  of  Herder,  appeared  empty  and  idle 
pleasures,  and  his  longing  for  the  conversation  of  his 
fiiend  returned,  when  there  was  no  longer  a  reason  for 
his  remaining  in  Leipzig.  An  invisible  hand  drew  him 
again  to  AVeimar  ;  an  inward  voice  whispered  to  him  that 
it  was  only  by  the  side  of  Herder  that  the  sun  would  rise 
that  was  to  ripen  his  Titan.  On  a  visit  that  he  made 
there  about  this  time,  wlien  all  his  former  friends  received 
him  with  the  same  delight  as  at  first ;  Goethe,  with  more 
flattering  demonstrations  of  friendship  than  before  ;  the 
cirdelhat  gathered  about  him  was  so  choice  and  so  de- 
lightful that  he  determined  no  longer  to  resist  his  secret 
wishes. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  293 

Accordingly,  at  the  end  of  October,  just  a  year  from 
the  time  he  entered  it,  he  left  Leipzig,  and  on  the  26th, 
at  evening,  entered  the  gate  of  AVeimar,  to  him  that  of  a 
New  Jerusalem.  The  same  evening  he  wrote  the  follow- 
ing note  to  Herder :  "  At  length  I  have  passed  the  Arabian 
Desert  of  two  years,  and  have  arrived  with  the  same  pil- 
grim's garment,  like  an  Israelite  to  the  promised  land, 
where  I  wish  to  conquer  nothing  but  —  yourself." 

Madam  von  Kalb  was  at  her  country  house,  where  she 
suffered  with  cheerful  resignation  the  long  night  that  the 
almost  total  loss  of  her  sight  had  drawn  around  her. 

In  as  far  as  the  comfort  of  a  poet  depends  on  outward 
circumstances,  a  humble  personage  claims  a  page  in  his 
biogx-aphy.  This  is  the  Frau  Kuhnholdter,  the  wife  of  a 
saddler,  at  whose  house  Jean  Paul  hired  his  apartments. 
He  writes  as  usual  to  his  friend  Otto  :  "  My  gi*eatest  re- 
freshment here,  except  Herder,  is  my  house  Frau.  Never 
was  I  so  happily  lodged.  No  step-genius  provides  for  my 
comfort  and  waits  upon  me,  but  the  lady  of  the  house  her- 
self, who  takes  care  of  me  as  a  mother  would  take  care 
of  her  child.  In  my  absence  she  had  a  second  door  cut 
in  my  apartment,  and  cares  for  all,  and  places  all  in  order. 
At  six  o'clock  she  comes  in,  warms  and  lights  my  room, 
and  then  brings  the  hot  coffee.  I  give  her  a  crown,  with 
which  she  pays  all,  and  keeps  an  exact  account  till  she 
needs  a  new  one,  and  I  often  have  a  glass  of  wine  over. 
She  provides  my  wood,  my  comforts,  —  takes  care  of  the 
washing,  and  when  I  go  a  little  foot  journey,  like  my 
mother,  she  puts  up  everything,  even  the  ink-glass.  And 
when  I  return  all  is  ready,  as  in  an  expecting  family. 
The  duchess  mother  told  me  that  my  house  Frau  was  a 
great  reader.  I  inquired,  and  found  that  she  had  once 
taken  the  (Economical  Lexicon  from  the  library.     They 


294  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

wondered  at  it,  and  it  was  purchased  for  her  by  the 
duchess." 

These  outward  cares,  for  which  the  good  house  Frau 
so  well  provided,  bore  upon  the  whole  tenor  of  Richter's 
life  in  Weimar,  which  was  indeed  most  happj.  His  re- 
ception was  even  more  flattering  tlian  at  first,  as  personal 
knowledge  had  confirmed  the  former  admiration.  All 
doors  and  all  hearts,  even  the  ducal,  weie  opened  to  him. 
The  noble  and  intellectual  Duchess  Amelia  received  him 
as  a  friend  of  the  house,  and  he  was  indebted  to  her  de- 
scriptions for  his  knowledge  of  hola  Bella,  Naples,  Ischia, 
and  the  other  parts  of  Italy  that  he  has  painted  with 
such  living  colors  in  his  Titan.  Richter's  genius  also 
was  never  more  creative  and  sportful,  and  the  little  work 
that  he  produced  at  this  time,  Bevorstehenden  Lebenslanf* 
in  fulness  of  thought,  charm  of  expression,  and  a  gentle 
play  of  wit  and  humor,  between  the  serious  and  sportive, 
is  not  surpassed  by  any  of  his  longer  works. 

But  the  reader  must  not  be  defrauded  of  Paul's  own 
naive  and  simple  account.     He  writes  to  Otto  :  — 

"  Yesterday  I  visited  Scliiller.  He  was  indisposed,  and 
I  went,  foolishly,  to  walk  with  his  wife.  She  belongs  to 
those  agreeable  coquettes  in  conversation,  wdio  Ao  not 
throw  the  ball  straight  back,  but  keep  it  up  through 
playful  persiflage.  She  led  the  author  of  Hesperus,  at 
twilight,  to  one  beautiful  eminence,  to  see  another ;  but  he 
could  only  look  at  her  beautiful  face,  and  her  still  more 
charming  Cleopatra  eyes.  I  always  tell  her  I  cannot  be- 
lieve a  word  she  says  unless  she  looks  in  my  face 

At  a  learned  supper  I  met  Hufeland  and  Fichte,  and 
others  that  I  did  not  know.  Fichte  is  small  (I  thought 
he  had  been  tall),  modest,  and  precise,  but  not  particu- 

*  Approaching  life's  course. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  295 

larly  genial.  I  was  lovingly  treated  by  all,  especially  by 
Schiller.  Ah,  I  speak  too  openly  with  people,  and  shield 
myself  too  little.  My  table-talk  at  Dresden  to  Schlegel 
obliged  his  brother,  when  it  was  repeated  to  him,  to  the 
expression  of  his  judgment  about  me.*  .... 

"  I  write  to  you,  wrapped  in  Wieland's  wide  mantle, 
that,  on  account  of  the  cold,  his  wife  lent  me.  I  travelled 
here  on  foot,  with  only  my  summer  coat,  and  a  pocketful 
of  shoes  and  clean  shirts.f  Wieland  is  slender,  erect,  with 
a  red  scarf,  and  a  red  handkerchief  bound  round  his  head, 
—  talking  much  of  himself,  but  not  with  pride,  —  a  little 
aristippish,  and  indulgent  towards  himself,  as  towards 
others,  —  full  of  parental  and  conjugal  love,  but  so  in- 
toxicated by  the  muses,  that  his  wife  once  concealed  from 
him  for  ten  whole  days  the  death  of  one  of  his  children. 
He  does  not  penetrate  the  relations  of  things  so  deeply 
as  Herder,  and  his  judgment  is  better  upon  external 
social  affairs  than  upon  intimate  human  relations.  He 
gave  me  the  palm  many  inches  higher  than  his  own, 
particularly  about  my  dreams  and  pages  upon  nature, 
and  increased  my  outward  pride  (my  inwai'd,  never) 
about  many  tilings.  He  depreciates  himself  too  much, 
and  was  too  anxious  about  my  praise  of  his  works." 

"  On  my  second  visit  to  Wieland,  with  my  wide  flut- 
tering summer  ornaments,  the  good  patriarch,  on  account 
of  the  hateful  cold  weather,  brought  me  his  coat  himself. 
To-day  I  carried  it  back.  God  send  every  poet  such  an 
active,  firm,  prudent,  candid,  tender,  and  kind  wife.  She 
had  read  in  the  newspapers  of  the  danger  of  resting  after 
being  cold,  and  she  brought  and  insisted  upon  my  draw- 

*  In  a  severe  review  of  Jean  Paul's  works. 

t  This  was  on  Paul's  first  visit  from  Leipzig,  before  he  had  perma- 
nently established  himself  in  Weimar. 


296  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

ing  on  warm  stockings.  Wieland  could  not  survive  her 
if  she  were  to  die,  neither  she  him.  He  has  told  me  her 
heart's  history,  and  also  his  own.*      Ah !  how  much  I 

have  to  relate  to  your  ear  and  heart In  his  single 

and  widowed  daughters,  beneath  plain  persons,  are  good 
and  beautiful  hearts  ;  but  with  such  faces  they  Avill'  not 
be  di'awn  out.  And  yet  —  otherwise  —  his  wife  proposed, 
and  he  mentioned  it  to  me  the  next  morning,  that  I  should 
take  the  opposite  house,  and  eat  always  with  tliem.  He 
said  I  gave  him  new  life,  and  that  they  all  loved  me ! 
Naturally,  as  I  always  make  them  laugh,  and  as  /cannot 
help  loving  so  good  a  family.  But  that  would  never  do. 
Two  poets  can  never  live  together.  And  I  wiU  wear  no 
chain,  even  were  it  formed  of  perfume,  and  welded  by 
moonbeams,  —  and  I  should  be  certain  that  in  the  soli- 
tude of  only  their  society  I  should  end  by  marrying  one 
of  their  daughters,  —  which  is  not  my  plan." 

"  I  have  just  come  from  Herder.  We  sat  many  hours 
alone  in  his  arbor.  O,  dear  Otto,  how  shall  I  show  you 
this  noble  spirit  at  its  right  elevation,  before  which  my 
little  soul  bends  with  Spanish,  even  Turkish  veneration, 
—  this  man,  penetrated  with  the  Divinity,  whose  foot  is 
upon  this  world,  his  head  and  breast  in  the  other.  How 
shall  I  paint  his  inspired  eye,  when  poetry  or  music  softens 
him  ?  How  shall  I  represent  him  embracing  all  the 
branches  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  although  he  seizes 
masses,  not  parts,  and  instead  of  the  tree,  shakes  the 
ground  upon  which  it  stands.  I  have  often,  after  spend- 
ing the  evening  with  him,  taken  leave  with  tears. 

"  Apropos,  I  have  also  been  with  Goethe,  who  received 
me  with  more  obliging  friendship  than  the  first  time.  I 
was,  in  consequence,  freer,  bolder,  less  susceptible,  and 

*  See  Appendix  IIL 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  297 

therefore  more  independent.  He  inquired  after  my  man- 
ner of  working,  as  it  completely  surpasses  his  method,  and 
asked  how  I  liked  Fichte.  Upon  the  last  Goethe  said : 
'  He  is  the  great  new  scholastic.  Men  are  born  poets,  but 
they  can  make  themselves  philosophers,  if  they  can  any- 
where fix  a  transcendental  idea.  The  new  (philosophers) 
make  light  an  object,  when  it  should  only  show  objects.' 
He  will  complete  the  Faust  at  the  end  of  six  months. 
He  said  he  could  always  promise  himself  his  work  six 
months  beforehand,  and  he  prepares  himself  by  prudent 
diet.  Schiller  drinks  coifee  immoderately,  and  Malaga 
also.     No  one  is  as  moderate  in  coffee  as  I  am, 

"  Goethe  told  us  he  had  not  read  a  syllable  of  his 
Werter  until  ten  years  after  it  was  written.  'Who  would 
willingly  suiTender  themselves  to  a  past  sensation,  and 
recall  anger  or  love,'  etc.  So  also  said  Herder  of  his 
works.  Wliat  can  be  said  of  the  self-idolatry  of  the 
small  literary  men  of  the  day,  when  such  men  are  so 
humble?  I  was  ashamed  not  to  he  so  before  them,  but 
I  said,  'that  my  things,  immediately  after  they  were 
printed,  pleased  me  extremely,  and  that  I  knew  no  bet- 
ter reading,  —  but  when  I  had  forgotten  my  own  ideal,  I 
knew  none  worse.' 

"  Dear  Otto,  wdiy  do  you  write  me  so  little  of  yourself? 
"With  what  right  or  justice  should  I  give  you  all  my  per- 
sonalities, if  I  did  not  expect  yours  in  return  ?  Write  me 
soon,  what  makes  you  so  calm,  —  namely,  —  '  your  newly- 
discovered  unsealed  fountain '  ?  Has  no  one  guessed  that 
it  is  a  ^t  for  distant,  thirsting  friends,  when  they  are 
told  how  often  you  sneeze,  gape,  smile,  or  w^eep?  You 
imagine  me  more  altered  in  my  views  of  human  life  and 
benevolence  than  I  am.  I  am  the  same  man  as  formerly, 
and  have  lost  nothing  but  certain  hopes  and  dreams." 
13* 


298  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Otto,  in  his  next  letter,  discovers  the  source  of  his 
newly  acquired  contentment,  and  as  it  condenses  the  phi- 
losophy of  many  tedious  volumes,  I  give  an  extract  from  it. 

"  The  conviction  lies  deep  and  indelible  in  every  hu- 
man breast,  that  only  those  have  a  right  to  be  happy,  — 
more,  only  those  can  reproach  Destiny,  who  possess'»the 
purest  virtue  ;  that  every  one  should  be  satisfied  with  his 
fate,  if  he  has  ever,  in  the  course  of  his  life,  acted  un- 
justly or  unwisely.  I  reflected  upon  my  whole  life.  I 
have  found  nowhere  what  is  in  the  world  called  happi- 
ness, but  everywhere  gifts  that  I  had  not  deserved.  The 
more  narrowly  I  looked  at  these,  they  shivered,  and,  like 
ignoble  metals,  evaporated  in  the  melting.  How  small 
then  Avas  the  result?  But  I  did  not  spare  nor  deceive 
myself,  and  hypocritically  say,  that  my  desert  appeared 
much  smaller,  and  the  more  this  diminished  the  more  the 
gifts  increased.  I  felt  with  deep  mortification,  that  there 
I  should  have  been  better,  here  wiser,  or  at  least  more 
reasonable.  Then  I  was  silent  within  myself,  and  said, 
'  Thou  hast  received  more  than  thou  hast  deserved,  and 
if  Destiny  had  given  thee  nothing  but  this  living  faith, 
and  the  still,  cool  air,  and  the  solitude  that  thou  lovest, 
still  it  is  more,  a  thousand  times  more  than  thou  hast  de- 
served.' .... 

"  I  celebrated  Amone's  birthday,  this  year,  with  emo- 
tions wholly  different  from  former  ones.  In  future  years, 
I  thought,  she  will  live  by  me,  care  for  me,  and  as  I  have 
always  known  her  sacrificing  love,  so  I  am  certain  that  in 
every  relation  with  me,  be  it  ever  so  limited,  she  will  be 
contented.  I  have  lived,  in  my  long  connection  with  her, 
days  of  sweet  and  intimate  enjoyment  for  the  mind  and 
heart.  How  often  do  I  admire  in  her  her  sacrificing  and 
forbearing  spirit,  —  her  tenderness  of  heart,  together  with 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  299 

the  manly  ambition  of  a  philosophical  spirit ;  her  silence 
and  patience  under  the  severity  of  her  father,  and  the 
narrowness  of  her  family  ;  —  all  this  makes  the  prospect 
of  life  with  her,  and  only  Avith  her,  when  we  have  passed 
the  hard  circumstances  that  now  divide  us,  dear  to  my 
heart.  To  whom  could  I  say  all  this,  with  the  prospect 
of  sympathy,  but  to  you  my  Richter  ?  " 

To  this  letter  Richter  answered :  "  Your  excellent 
judgment,  ujion  happiness  and  desert,  was  always  mine. 
I  have  always  myself  laid  the  egg  out  of  which  the  basi- 
lisks have  crept.  On  account  of  my  poor  brother,  I  have 
also  some  guilt,  but  less  of  the  heart  than  of  the  head.  I 
contended  with  Goethe  upon  your  assertion  '  concerning 
the  Progress  of  the  World.'  '  Revolving,  we  must  say,' 
he  answered ;  '  a  priori  progress  follows  from  the  belief 
of  a  Providence,  but  not  a  -posteriori  is  the  progress 
always  apparent,  at  least  not  in  the  French  revolution. 
The  hardly  found  truth  we  must  also  earn  for  ourselves. 
The  chambers  of  the  brain  are  full  of  seed,  for  which  the 
feelings  and  passions  are  the  flower-soil  and  the  forcing- 
glasses.' 

"  A  young  Haydn  is  music-director  here  ;  and  a  female 
singer,  that  I  visit  sometimes,  though  without  beauty,  is  a 
perfect  gymnastic  for  wit.  She  laughs  and  sings,  and, 
with  justice,  more  than  she  speaks.  She  told  me,  that 
she  asked  Goethe  how  she  should  receive  me,  whether 
she  should  come  trilling  to  meet  me  ?  '  Child,'  said  he, 
'  do  as  with  me,  and  be  natural.' 

"  Herder  has  one  Alphabet  of  his  Metakritic  ready.  He 
asked  me  to  look  through  it,  and  make  corrections.  I 
told  him  I  would,  but  only  to  read  and  restore  what  he 
had  scratched  out. 

".  .  .  .  In   the   great  world  I  despise   the   men  and 


300  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

their  joyless  joys  ;  but  I  esteem  the  women ;  in  them 
alone  can  one  investigate  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Besides, 
I  am  freer  and  better  known  than  in  a  small  place.  But, 
as  I  said  to  Herder  yesterday,  '  Once  married,  I  shall 
creep  into  the  smallest  nest  in  the  world,  and  stick  noth- 
ing but  my  writing  fingers  out.' "  '» 

Caroline  Herder,  in  her  reminiscences  of  his  life,  gives 
a  beautiful  account  of  Richter's  relations  at  this  time 
with  her  gifted  husband. 

"  In  the  last  month  of  the  year  1798,  Jean  Paul  Rich- 
ter  came  to  Weimar,  and  with  warm,  full  heart  to  Herder. 
Herder  immediately  won  his  love,  and  his  esteem  for 
Richter's  great  and  rich  genius  increased  from  day  to 
day.  The  high  moral  power  breathing  in  his  works,  fit- 
ting him  to  be  a  physician  of  the  times,  united  both  men 
in  a  friendship  of  the  closest  sympathy.  He  came,  {is 
though  sent  by  a  good  Providence,  exactly  at  the  time 
when  Herder,  on  account  of  his  political  and  philosoplii- 
cal  principles,  was  deserted,  and  nearly  forgotten.  The 
happy  evening  hours  that  Richter  passed  with  us,  his 
perpetually  cheerful,  youthful  soul,  his  fire,  his  humor, 
the  animation  with  which  he  talked  over  with  Herder 
everything  that  happened,  always  gave  him  new  life. 
Much  as  tliey  differed  in  their  views  upon  one  subject, 
yet  were  their  principles  and  their  emotions  always  thn 
same.  (Herder  differed  from  Richter  in  his  judgment  of 
women ;  he  thought  Paul  made  them  too  melancholy,  too 
desponding,  and  perhaps  too  inactive.)  Moreover,  he 
valued  Richter's  genius,  his  rich,  overflowing,  poetic 
sj)irit,  far  above  the  soulless  productions  •  of  the  time, 
that  contended  for  the  poetic  form  only.  Hei-der  named 
them  brooks  without  water,  and  often  said,  "  that  Richter 
stood,  as  opposed  to  them,  upon  a  high  elevation,  and  that 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  301 

he  would  exchange  all  artisifcal  fc^rms  f'cr  Kii="  living  vfr- 
tue,  his  feeling  heart,  his  perennial  creative  genius  ;  he 
brings  new,  fresh  life,  truth,  virtue,  reality,  into  the  de- 
clining and  misunderstood  vocation  of  the  poet." 

"  Most  intimately  united  the  two  friends  lived  together. 
Our  Uttle  evening  table,  with  him,  our  cMldren,  and  some- 
times Frederic  Mayer,  was  a  true  sanctuary.  Oh,  how 
often  has  the  good  Richter  there,  or  walking,  or  in  his  little 
journeys  to  the  Ettersburg,  by  his  genial  humor,  robbed 
Herder  of  the  bitterness  of  his  emotions.  He  often  said 
to  me,  in  the  last  year  of  his  life,  '  Before  I  close  the 
Adrastea,  I  will  place  there  a  memento  of  our  Richter,  I 
will  show  to  the  whole  of  Germany  how  we  prize  him.'  " 

It  was  thus  that  our  Richter  was  valued  by  those  who 
best  knew  him.  and  perhaps  he  now  stood  upon  a  higher 
elevation  in  the  estimation  of  society  and  in  his  own  than 
he  had  before  attained.  He  had  added  independence  and 
strength  of  soul  to  the  consciousness  of  the  value,  and  to 
the  infinite  reverence  he  felt  for  the  holy  aim  of  his  life. 
His  views  were  more  extensive  and  richer ;  while  his 
heart  beat  with  a  more  glowing  philanthropy.  He  felt 
that  the  calling  of  an  author  at  this  time,  when  a  spiritual 
revolution  was  beating  in  the  hearts  of  men,  more  impor- 
tant even  than  the  political  that  was  raging  without,  de- 
manded all  the  highest  quahties  of  the  soul,  as  well  as  the 
devotion  of  the  time  and  heart  of  him, 

"  Who  comprehends  his  trust,  and  to  the  same 
Keeps  faithful,  with  a  singleness  of  aim." 

The  friendship  which  about  this  time  he  formed  with 
Jacobi  threw  him  again  on  the  path  of  pliilosophy,  which 
in  his  nineteenth  year  he  had  abandoned  for  poetry.  From 
the  idealism  of  Fichte,  which  made  egotism  ti-anscen- 
dental,  he  turned  to  what  he  thought  the  interests  of  hu- 


302  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"^i&nity  tleflyifid'ed.  -  God,?tWf  mnker,  preserver,  and  gov- 
ernor of  the  universe  ;  the  immortality  of  man,  as  a  self- 
conscious  and  accountable  being,  —  and  to  love,  as  the 
spring,  incitement,  and  impelling  principle  of  the  uni- 
verse. In  these  opinions  he  found  in  Jacobi  an  immova- 
ble rock,  and  for  these  Herder  incessantly  contended. 
They  had  united  to  publish  a  periodical  under  the  title 
of  "  Aurora"  but  the  advanced  age  of  Herder  (he  was 
in  lais  sixty-sixth  year)  and  Jacobi's  failing  health  pre- 
vented the  accomplishment  of  their  project. 

I  cannot  be  guilty  of  the  temerity  of  undertaking  to 
define  the  different  systems  of  the  philosophical  writers 
of  the  time,  so  as  to  be  able  to  determine  to  which  of 
them  Richter  adhered  ;  but  I  may  venture  to  assert  that 
he  dreaded  the  influence  of  the  Kantish  philosophy  upon 
religion  and  morals,  and  that  he  made  the  idealism  of 
Fichte  (who  asserts  that  all  external  things  are  the  pro- 
duction of  the  imagination)  the  subject  of  severe  ridicule 
in  his  Clavis  Fichtiana,  and  has  shown  the  practical  con- 
sequences of  his  system  in  Schoppe,  or  Leihgeber,  a  char- 
acter introduced  into  more  than  one  of  his  books,  who  is 
crazed  by  the  Ideal  philosoi)hy,  and  maddened  by  the 
fixed  idea  that  he  has  lost  his  individuality.  Ricliter's 
biographer  asserts,  that,  after  the  publication  of  Fichtc's 
book  upon  the  destiny  of  man,  he  seized  every  opportunity 
to  express  his  reverence  for  the  autlior,  and  that  in  his 
Levana  he  inserted  a  eulogy  of  Fichte. 

Jean  Paul  adhered  closely  to  Herder,  and  was  a  fellow- 
believer  with  Jacobi,  the  '■'faith  philosopher."  Those 
who  are  acquainted  witli  the  elevated  and  religious  senti- 
ments "  that  echoed  to  the  mighty  heart  of  Herder,"  wiU 
understand  the  position  he  took  in  German  philosophy. 
Richter  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree  what  have  been 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  303 

called  the  highest  capacities  of  man,  —  reverence  for  the 
holy  and  love  for  the  beautiful.  Superstition,  bigotry, 
and  fanaticism  seein  to  have  been  equalhj  abhorred  by 
him  in  early  life,  although  he  said,  after  the  French  Revo- 
lution :  "  I  bless  the  Concordat.  The  deepest  superstition 
is  better  than  Atheism  and  Theism." 

In  this  happy  manner  the  autumn  passed  in  "Weimar. 
In  January,  Madam  von  Kalb  returned  from  her  country 
residence,  and  immediately  a  storm  arose  in  Richter's 
Indian  summer.  She  had  brought  her  husband  and  her 
own  family  to  consent  to  her  divorce,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, insisted  upon  marrying  our  hero.  But  he  must 
give  his  own  account  of  the  affair,  in  a  letter  to  Otto :  — 

"  After  a  supper  at  Herder's,  with  Madam  von  Kalb, 
Herder  was  sitting  by  her,  for  he  esteems  her  highly, 
and  immediately,  in  the  presence  of  his  wife,  kissed  her 
heartily  ;  and  as  the  reflection  of  this  ancient  flame  fell 
upon  me,  she  said,  '  In  the  spring,  in  the  spring.'  I  said 
afterwards  to  her,  decidedly,  no  !  and  after  a  glow  of  elo- 
quence from  her,  it  stands  thus,  —  that  she  shall  take  no 
step  for,  and  I  no  step  against  the  divorce.  I  have  at 
last  acquired  firmness  of  heart.  In  this  affair  I  am 
wholly  guiltless.  I  can  feel  that  holy,  genial  love,  that  I 
cannot,  indeed,  paint  with  this  dark  water,  —  but  it  passes 
not  beyond  my  dreams." 

These  stormy  passages  in  the  life  of  Richter  were  of 
singular  advantage  in  enabling  him  to  complete  liis  Titan, 
but  they  were  unfavorable  to  his  own  happiness  ;  and,  jis 
he  said,  "  the  Berlespsh  relation  bound  his  hands  and 
shut  his  eyes,  while  some  gentler  heart  that  might  have 
been  his  was  lost  to  him  ?  Sliall  I  always  thus  play  and 
hope ;  fail  and  end  thus  ?  Such  women  as  both  these 
blind  one  to  every  quiet  female  Luna.     Ah,  what  seeds 


304  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

for  a  paradise  I  bore  iu  my  heart,  of  which  birds  of  prey 
have  robbed  me." 

Richter  remained  firm  through  the  winter  against  the 
seductions  of  Madam  von  Kalb.  He  happily  knew  that 
such  stormy  heroines  as  Madam  Berlespsh  and  Von  Kalb 
were  never  formed  for  wives  for  him.  He  needed  a'mild 
and  gentle  spirit,  not  to  dazzle  and  to  be  admired,  but  in 
whose  unselfish  love  he  could  find  a  sanctuary  for  his 
heart.  Xoble  and  excellent  as  Richter  was,  he  was  yet  a 
poet,  and  therefore  a  spiritual  egotist,  and  his  wife  must 
minister  to  the  domestic  altar  the  sweet  and  pure  incense 
of  reverence  and  love.  With  a  Berlespsh  he  could  have 
found  no  repose,  with  Madam  von  Kalb  there  could  have 
been  no  security. 

Xo  genius  of  either  sex  should  marry  a  genius.  The 
result  of  the  poetic  nature  seems  to  be  an  intense  person- 
ality. I  do  not  mean  selfishness  or  even  egotism,  —  but 
the  poet  lives  in  his  owa  creations  ;  they  are  his  domain, 
his  kingdom,  and  he  cannot  go  out  of  them  to  enter  into 
the  heart  or  interests  of  an  individual,  although  he  under- 
stands better  than  another  the  great  heart  of  humanity, 
and  lives  in  the  soul  of  the  universe.  His  wife  should  be 
willing  to  be  only  a  ray,  to  be  absorbed,  and  have  no  indi- 
vidual existence  except  in  him.  How  could  this  be  were 
both  poets,  both  demanding  supremacy  and  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  individual  superiority  ?  Far  happier,  far 
more  graceful  is  it  for  the  woman  to  remain  in  the  atti- 
tude of  a  priestess  at  the  domestic  altar  of  man,  not  be- 
cause he  is  a  man,  but  because  he  is  a  poet,  and  to  keep 
the  flame  pure  by  no  slavish  offering,  but  by  the  holy 
incense  of  admiration  and  reverence. 

The  work  that  appeared  this  year  from  the  pen  of 
Richter,  "  Selections  from  the  Papers  of  the  Devil,"  re- 


LIFE   OF  JEAN  PAUL.  305 

cast  and  rewritten,  was  entitled  "  Palingenesien,"  horn 
again.  Ten  years  before,  Ilichter  had  met  with  great 
difficulty  in  finding  an  editor  for  these  satires.  Disputes 
were  held  upon  the  title,  —  the  printer  wishing  them  to 
appear  as  "  Philosophical  and  Cosmopolitan  Remains  of 
Fuust,"  or  ^^  Selections  from  the  Writings  of  Sir  Lucifer." 
Jean  Paul  adhered  to  his  own  title,  but  the  book  attracted 
little  attention  at  the  time.  It  was  now  wholly  rewritten, 
and  only  about  ten  of  the  original  satires  retained ;  these 
being  the  only  pages  that  could  have  a  direct  reference 
to  the  present  time,  and  be  combined  with  a  dramatic 
action.  A  critic,  speaking  of  this  book,  says,  "  It  is  one 
of  the  works  of  the  author  that  gives  the  most  lucid  ex- 
planation of  the  being  and  nature  of  the  poet,  and  places 
poetical  influences  in  the  clearest  light." 

In  the  course  of  tliis  spring  the  splendor  with  which 
Weimar  was  invested  at  his  second  visit  was  somewhat 
diminished,  and  the  shado\\'y  side  became  more  apparent 
when  it  was  known  that  he  had  placed  himself  on  the 
side  of  the  literary  men  to  which  Herder  belonged.  It 
was  too  beautiful  to  Richter  to  sacrifice  himself  for  this 
beloved  friend.  The  relations  between  him,  Goethe,  and 
Schiller,  the  last  having  now  come  to  live  in  Weimar, 
were  every  day  attenuated,  and  the  warm  hopes  with 
which  he  had  approached  these  great  men  chilled.  It 
became  still  worse  when  Herder's  criticism  of  the  Kantish 
school  appeared,  as  it  was  well  known  that  Jean  Paul 
had  gone  through  the  manuscript  with  him,  and  had 
written  notes  upon  it.  At  a  dinner  where  all  were 
present,  at  a  remark  of  our  hero,  Goethe,  apparently  dis- 
pleased, remained  silent,  turning  his  plate  around  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour.  All  this  made  an  invitation  to  the 
court  of  Hildburghausen  doubly  welcome. 


CHAPTER    V. 

RiCHTER   VISITS    THE    CoURT    OF    HiLDBURGHAUSEN.   —  JIaDEMOI- 

SELLE  VON  F.  —  The  Four  Sister  Princesses.  —  Dedication 
OF  Titan.  —  Visits  Berlin. 


]N  the  spring  of  1799   Madam   von    ^  p  j-gg 
Kail),    liaving    invited    Amone,    the       iEt.  36. 
betrothed  of  Otto,  to  accompany  her,  retired 
to  one  of  her  country  houses,  and  all  questioa 
of  the  divorce  was  thenceforth  dropped. 

Richter  could  not  pass  the  genial  season  of  spring 
without  a  longing  desire  to  wander ;  he  therefoi'e  ac- 
cepted the  invitation  to  visit  the  court  of  Ilildburghausen, 
from  whose  Duke  he  had  received  the  diploma  of  Lega- 
tionsrath.  He  was  also  drawn  thither  by  the  powerful 
attraction  of  a  young  lady,  Caroline  von  F.,  whom  he 
had  met  in  Weimar  the  previous  winter,  and  who  was 
an  attendant  on  the  Duchess  of  Ilildburghauficn.  This 
new  attacliinent  was  so  far  happier  for  Kit-hter,  that  the 
lady  did  not  belong  to  the  class  of  eccentric  beings  who 
had  before  entangled  him,  but  the  storm  tliat  nipped  and 
destroyed  its  fiuit  in  the  bud  came  from  the  opposition 
of  her  noble  relations. 

His  letters  describe  the  delightful  residence  of  a  few 
weeks  at  this  court,  and  the  flattering  kindness  of  the 
Duchess.     She   wa.s   one   of  the   four   beautiful   sisters, 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  307 

daughters  of  the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  to  whom  he 
afterwards  dedicated  his  Titan.  He  must  first  describe 
his  situation  at  the  court,  and  then  the  lady  of  his  love. 
His  letter  is  to  Otto. 

"  Paint  to  yourself  the  heavenly  Duchess,  with  her 
childlike  eyes,  her  Avhole  face  full  of  love  and  the  cliarm 
of  youth,  her  voice  like  the  nightingale's,  and  her  mother's 
heart,  —  then  the  not  less  beautiful  sister,  the  Princess 
von  Solms,  and  the  third,  the  Princess  of  Thun  and 
Taxis,  and  their  lovely,  healthy  children,  who  all  ar- 
rived on  the  same  day  that  I  did.  We  will  pass  the 
men,  but  with  the  Princess  von  Solms  I  could  be  happy 
in  a  mountain  coal-mine.  All  these  women  read  me,  and 
love  me  truly,  and  urge  me  to  stay  yet  eight  days  longer, 
when  the  fourth,  the  yet  more  charming  sister,  the  Queen 
of  Prussia,  is  expected.  I  am  invited  to  dinner  every 
evening.  The  Duke  is  extremely  good-natured,  but  could 
not  at  first  be  much  au  fait  with  me.  He  remarked  that 
I  took  too  little  asparagus,  and  helped  me  not  only  to  this, 
but  to  the  first  young  venison,  which  is  not  indeed  won- 
derfully good.  Yesterday  1  fantasied  upon  the  flute  be- 
fore the  court.  You  are  shocked  and  friglitened.  But 
for  more  than  half  a  year  I  have  done  it  passably  before 
Gleim,  Weisse,  Herder,  and  the  Duchess  mother.  I  have 
also  here  an  established  brother  and  sisterhood,  and  could 
be  a  Zinzendorf.  No,  it  would  be  ungrateful  if  I  did  not 
receive  the  love  of  the  Germans  as  the  richest  reward  of 
my  authorship. 

"  ^ly  Caroline  lives  with  licr  mother,  sisters,  and  brother, 
and  the  time  I  am  not  at  court  is  passed  with  her.  I  know 
her  now  more  intimately^  and  in  no  female  soul  have  I 
found  such  serene,  sedulous,  religious  morality  ;  immova- 
ble and  incorruptible  in  its  smallest  branches.     One  feels, 


3o8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

alas !  by  her  moral  tenderness,  that  he  has  been  long  In 
Weimar.  If  I  were  united  with  her,  my  whole  being, 
even  the  smallest  stain,  would  be  purified.  She  does  not 
read,  as  young  ladies  usually  do,  merely  to  dissolve  a  sen- 
timental manna  upon  her  tongue,  but  to  leara ;  tl^at  is, 
she  reads  history  and  natural  history.  She  lias  formed  a 
complete  herbarium,  and  a  succession  of  ingenious  flower 
paintings.  She  makes  verses,  as  you  will  learn  by  the 
accompanying  enclosure,  and  therefore  she  cannot  forget 
the  satire  upon  female  poetry  in  J.  P.'s  letters.*  It  was 
true,  she  said,  but  too  bitter.  She  di-inks  no  wine  at 
dinner,  and  passes  great  part  of  her  time  in  the  open 
air  in  the  garden.  '  Now  that  I  am  healtliy,'  she  says, 
'  I  will  make  myself  hardy.'  ....  Her  delicate  mother 
certainly  guesses  all,  and  by  her  silence  gives  consent. 
I  dare  tell  you  all.     With  three  kind  words  you  can  give 

this  dear  being  three  heavens Her  complexion  is 

fair,  and  pale  red,  her  brow  poetical  and  feminine,  her 
eyebrows  strong,  indeed,  too  much  so,  and  her  eyes  dark. 
The  nose  is  tlic  reverse  of  little  and  short ;  the  lips  natu- 
rally cut,  and  the  chin  a  little  too  prominent.  Of  the 
beauty  of  her  hair  I  enclose  a  proof.  Pray  return  it  im- 
mediately. I  derive  from  her,  God  knows  why,  unless  it 
is  my  fi\  e-and-thirty  yeai-s,  a  sense  of  firmness  and  secu- 
rity that  enables  me  to  enjoy  the  present  hour  witliout 
anxiety  for  future  years  ;  and  thus  my  life  completes  its 
circle,  its  enchanted  circle." 

Eichter  was  now  more  genuinely  attached  tliaii  he  had 
ever  been,  and  the  lady  ajjpeared  to  have  reciprocated  his 
emotions  ;  but  the  course  of  their  love  was  turbid  and 
ruffled.  Paul  was  tortured  all  through  the  summer  by 
the  caprices  of  Caroline's  noble  relatives.     At  one  time 

*  See  Jeau  Paul's  "  Conjectural  Biography." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  309 

she  gained  their  consent  to  the  betrothment,  and  Richter 
wrote,  full  of  joy,  to  Otto,  to  postpone  his  marriage  with 
Amone,  that  they  might  have  the  happiness  of  solemniz- 
ing both  on  the  same  day,  and  both  retiring  to  the  little 
city  of  Bayreuth,  there  to  realize  the  plans  of  their  youth. 
All  these  changes  are  related  most  faithfully  to  his  friend, 
and  he  closes  one  of  his  letters  with  these  words  :  "  How 
can  I  tell  you,  Otto,  how  entirely  I  esteem  her,  —  not 
merely  love,  for  that  is  always  so  easy ! " 

The  winter  passed  in  frequent  correspondence,  and  in 
May  his  friends,  the  Herders,  went  with  him  to  Ilmaneau, 
where  Caroline  then  was,  to  celebrate  the  festival  of  be- 
trothment.* Certainly  Richter  had  never  loved  appar- 
ently so  naturally  and  prudently,  and  the  encouragement 
of  the  Herders  was  to  him  a  guaranty  of  his  future  hap- 
piness. They  found  that  his  Caroline  surpassed  even  the 
description  of  her  lover.  There  was  something  about  her 
fascinating  to  people  not  exactly  of  the  world,  and  that 

*  The  "  Verlobung  "  is  often,  but  not  always,  a  solemn  ceremony  in 
German  society.  It  means  that  the  lover  is  fonnally  accepted  by  the 
lady  and  her  family.  If  there  be  no  reason  for  keeping  the  affair  secret, 
the  relations  and  friends,  on  both  sides,  are  assembled,  a  little  festival 
takes  place,  and  the  young  people  are  presented  as  "  Verlobt,"  affi- 
anced, or,  as  we  say  in  this  country,  "  engaged."  The  marriage  cere- 
mony, which  takes  place  afterwards,  is  more  private,  and  attended  by 
fewer  witnesses.  In  this  country  we  have  the  custom  of  "  Verlobung," 
without  the  ceremony;  and  here,  as  Mrs.  Jameson,  in  her  pleasant 
notes  to  the  Princess  Amelia's  dramas,  observes,  "  the  engaged  youth 
is  expected  to  devote  eyery  leisure  minute  to  the  society  of  his  be- 
trothed ;  he  attends  her  to  all  public  places,  and  to  every  private  party, 
(as  it  is  not  considered  good  manners  to  invite  them  separately,)"  and 
less  restraint  is  placed  on  the  intercourse  of  the  lovers  here  than  even 
in  Germany.  In  England,  it  may  be  presumed,  from  Mrs.  Jameson, 
the  lovers  do  not  appear  much  together  before  marriage;  and  in  France 
it  is  offending  against  lien-seance  ever  to  leave  them  alone  together.  la 
this,  as  in  other  habits  of  social  life,  we  have  been  pemnitted,  in  this 
country,  to  select  what  is  good  and  agreeable  from  all  others. 


310  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

took  the  Herders  by  surprise.  What  took  place  at  thia 
time  is  not  exactly  known ;  the  opposition  of  the  relatives 
does  not  appear  to  have  prevented  the  betrotliment,  but 
some  little  moral  differences,  that  would  have  destroyed 
the  whole  happiness  of  the  marriage.  Richter  returned 
to  Weimar  with  a  crushed  heart,  —  he  had  no  words  to 
describe  the  agitation  his  disappointment  occasioned ;  for 
a  moment  the  health  of  this  strong  and  firm  being  sank 
under  the  blow,  and  the  thought  of  returning  again  to  tiie 
desert  world.  He  thus  closed  a  letter  to  Otto :  "  The 
blow  is  given  that  has  cut  me  to  the  inmost  heart.  I  also 
am  superstitious,  —  misfortunes  and  happiness  come  twice, 
not  three  times.  I  long  infinitely  for  the  little  corner  of 
my  birth,  and  the  innocent  and  touching  scenes  about 
you.*  You  know  not  how  my  heart,  even  to  sadness, 
dwells  upon  your  day  of  ceremony.f  We  can  never  lose 
each  other,  therefore  everything,  even  the  weather,  Avill 
be  important  to  me,  as  it  concerns  you  and  our  Amone." 

Otto,  who  appears  to  have  felt  a  singularly  warm  in- 
terest in  the  Fraulein  von  F.,  insisted  upon  knowing 
more  distinctly  the  causes  of  the  rupture.  Richter  says, 
in  re^jly :  "  Merely  little  moral  differences,  but  such  as 
would  have  destroyed  the  whole  liappiness  of  marriage." 
But  there  was  also  the  opposition  of  the  lady's  noble 
family,  who  i)robal)ly  looked  with  the  eyes  of  worldly 
prudence,  not  merely  u])on  their  sister's  violation  of  all 
German  conventionalism  in  uniting  herself  witli  an  author, 
but  trembled  for  the  straitened  circumstances  into  which 
her  disinterested  inexperience  would  lead  her. 

In  a  letter,  written  to  her  at  the  breaking  off  the  be- 

*  Otto  and  his  sister  Frederica  were  both  married  at  this  time;  aud 
Otto  immediately  removed  to  Baj'reuth. 
t  Otto's  Verlobung  day.    ■ 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  31I 

trothment,  Paul  says :  "  Only  one  fault  have  I,  and  only 
I,  committed  throughout,  that  aftex*  so  many  earlier  les- 
sons from  experience,  I  did  not  immediately,  as  soon  as 
we  had  once  conversed  with  each  other,  write  this  letter 
to  you,  and  impress  it  upon  my  own  heart." 

Otto,  to  whom  the  correspondence  was  transmitted, 
draws,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  do,  these  wise,  hut, 
alas !  too  tardy  reflections,  for  the  use  of  his  friend :  — 

"  It  is  a  weak  perverseness  of  our  nature,  and  yet  an 
antidote  against  egotism,  that  when  we  see  a  being  worthy 
of  our  esteem,  we  turn  from  what  we  discover  in  them 
that  is  disagreeable,  and  believe  that  if  we  shut  our  eyes 
so  as  not  to  see  them,  the  little  spots  are  not  there ;  as 
if  we  could  avert  the  divine  and  human  sentence  which 
decrees  that  inequalities  and  blemishes  shall,  in  the  course 
of  time,  become  more  instead  of  less  apparent,  and  that 
because  we  blind  ourselves  they  should  vanish  and  be 
obliterated.  That  your  separation  is  right,  that  it  is  the 
work  of  destiny,  and  that  you  have  completed  the  decree 
of  a  higher  Power,  tliat  you  should  not  be  happy  together, 
is  true,  and  that  the  good  and  unfortunate  Caroline  will 
be  the  most  unhappy  is  also  true ;  because  she  will  never 
be  in  a  situation  to  understand  the  disparity  and  inequal- 
ity between  you.  Because  the  advantages  of  the  separa- 
tion are  more  apparent  to  you  than  the  advantages  of  the 
union,  you  can  justify  the  separation  to  yourself;  but  it  is 
the  reverse  with  Caroline ;  she  can  never  understand  the 
rfzsadvantages  of  the  union,  because  her  dismterested  gen- 
erosity and  affection  would  obliterate  them  all ;  while  she 
feels  the  unhappiness  of  the  separation." 

We  see  from  these  extracts  that  Eiehter  was  not  alto- 
gether blameless  with  regard  to  the  Fraulein  von  F.,  be- 
cause his  deeper  penetration  and  experience  of  life  had 


312  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

enabled  him  from  the  beginning  to  understand  the  dispari- 
ties, whether  of  a  moral  or  conventional  nature,  which 
would  have  rendered  their  union  unhappy ;  and  yet  he 
permitted  himself  to  win  the  love  of  the  lady.  She  seems 
to  have  been  greatly  attached  to  him,  and  for  his  sake 
would  have  saci'iliced  the  privileges  of  rank  and  accdpted 
the  inconveniences  of  poverty  ;  and  it  was  no  balm  to  a 
wounded  heart,  or  to  wounded  pride,  that  he  had  had  the 
sagacity  to  foresee  the  issue. 

As  women,  we  may  be  peiTnitted  to  protest  against 
Richter  in  connection  with  our  sex.  It  is  true  that  he 
has  written  beautifully  and  eloquently  of  women ;  and 
has  perhaps  done  much  to  elevate  and  spiritualize  their 
views  and  affections ;  but  in  actual  life  he  was  not  wholly 
sincere  with  the  beings  he  professed  to  reverence.  After 
the  fancy  for  the  little  blue-eyed  peasant  girl,  till  his  mar- 
riage, he  does  not  appear  to  have  felt  the  truth  and  ten- 
derness of  an  equal  love.  He  was  dreaming  of  an  ideal, 
spiritual  love,  like  a  far-off  luminous  star,  while  he  per- 
mitted himself  to  write  letters  to  his  four  or  five  Ilofer 
friends,  that  from  any  but  a  poet  would  have  been  thought 
genuine  declarations  of  love. 

In  his  connection  with  INIadam  von  Kalb  and  Emilie 
Berlespsh  he  was  more  sinned  against  than  sinning ;  in 
the  one  case  he  retreated  before  dishonor,  in  the  other 
before  a  marriage  in  which  thei-e  could  be  no  genuine 
and  mutual  affection  ;  but  even  hei-e  he  appropriated 
their  unselfish  affections,  their  disinterested  devotion,  to 
purposes  of  artistic  creation ;  he  made  them  the  models 
for  the  female  cliaracters  in  his  works,  and  they  lived  to 
see  the  warm  pulses  of  their  hearts  registered,  and  made 
a  standard  by  which  to  count  the  feverish  or  healthful 
pulsation  of  other  hearts. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  313 

In  the  usual  acceptation  of  the  word,  Richter  was  not 
an  enemy  to  women,  but  his  devotion  to  them  was  not 
a  genuine  devotion  to  them  as  women  ;  he  did  not  love 
them  for  themselves ;  he  loved  them  artistically ;  and  as 
the  artist  drapes  his  model  in  every  graceful  form  to  pro- 
duce effect,  Jean  Paul  made  use  of  the  power  his  genius 
gave  him  over  the  minds  of  women  to  di-aw  out  the  sweet 
affections,  the  hidden  depths  of  the  heart,  revealed  only 
to  love,  to  mcrease  his  psychological  knowledge  for  the 
public. 

In  spite  of  all  the  various  causes  of  interruption,  Richter 
was  never  more  completely  absorbed  in  work  than  through 
this  winter.  The  first  volume,  and  the  comic  appendix  to 
Titan,  was  ready  for  the  press,  and  he  had  printed  his 
history  of  Charlotte  Gorday  and  Glavis  Fichtiana.  Nei- 
ther of  these  were  works  of  the  fii'st  importance,  but  they 
served  to  keep  him  before  the  public  while  his  great  work 
was  in  preparation. 

The  Glavis  Flddiana  was,  at  the  time,  one  of  his  most 
celebrated  works,  and  upon  its  publication  attracted  much 
attention.  Fichte's  popularity  was  so  great,  or  the  interest 
in  metaphysical  speculations  so  intense,  that  the  booksel- 
lers paid  him  six  louis  d'ors  a  sheet  for  his  lectures,  while 
Goethe  received  only  five,  at  the  same  time,  for  his  most 
admired  works.  It  would  not,  perhaps,  be  interesting  to 
inquire  at  this  distance  of  time,  and  in  another  country, 
why  Jean  Paul  threw  himself  so  entirely  into  the  pliilo- 
sophical  and  metaphysical  contests  of  the  day.  From  all 
that  can  be  gathered  from  his  letters,  it  would  seem  to  be 
his  friendship  for  Herder  and  Jacobi ;  but  he  gained  noth- 
ing, even  from  them,  and  he  widened  the  distance  between 
himself  and  Goethe  and  Schiller. 

His  letters  at  tliis  time  to  his  friend  Otto,  to  whom  he 

14 


314  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

confided  every  intimate  and  every  passing  emotion,  betray 
discontent  and  restlessness  ;  a  deep  longing  for  quiet  and 
retirement,  yet  an  unwillingness  to  retire  until  he  had 
formed  a  union  that  would  satisfy  his  heart,  if  not  his 
ideal,  —  although,  at  present,  he  certainly  did  not  place 
his  demands  too  high.  He  says :  "  I  would  fain  'find  a 
gentle  girl  who  could  cooh  something  for  me ;  and  who 
would  sometimes  smile,  and  sometimes  weep  with  me." 

During  the  whole  of  this  winter  Richter  was  flattered 
and  courted  by  the  four  beautiful  Princesses  already  men- 
tioned, and  he  obtained  permission  to  dedicate  his  Titan 
to  them. 

The  dedication  of  Titan  to  the  four  distinguished  sis- 
ters, the  daughters  of  the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  is  not  to 
the  sistei-s  upon  the  throne,  for  he  mentions  only  their  bap- 
tismal names,  and  commends  his  Titan  to  their  favor  as 
exalted  human,  wot  princely  beings  ;  and  when  his  fi-iends 
represented  that  his  Titan  contained  bitter  satires  against 
princes,  he  answered,  "  That  his  dedication  was  to  theiu 
as  women,  not  princesses,  and  that  his  satire  touched 
princes  only,  not  their  wives." 

This  pretty  piece  of  flattery  is  thus  presented :  — 

"  The  queen  of  Love  and  her  three  attendant  graces 
look  from  their  cold  Olympus,  through  the  atmosphere, 
and  long  to  descend  to  our  earth,  where  the  soul  loves 
more  because  it  suffers  more ;  and  although  it  is  darker, 
it  is  warmer  than  on  Olympus.  They  hear  the  sacred 
hyms  of  Polyhymnia,  as  she  wanders  invisible  through 
the  earth,  to  elevate  and  console  man,  and  they  mourn 
that  they  are  so  distant  from  the  sighs  of  the  helpless. 
Then  they  resolved  to  clothe  themselves  in  the  veil  of 
humanity,  and  descend  to  earth.  As  they  touched  the 
flowers  of  earth,  and  threw  no  shadow,  the   queen  of 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  315 

heaven  raised  her  sceptre  and  decreed,  that  these  im- 
mortals should  be  mortal,  and  take  the  form  of  the  four 
sisters,  Louisa,  Charlotte,  Theresa,  and  Frederica,  and 
the  loves  were  changed  into  their  children,  and  fiew  into 
the  arms  of  the  mothers.  Then  their  hearts  beat  with 
new  love,  and  Polyhymnia,  as  she  hovered  invisibly  near, 
gave  them  tlie  voice  and  the  heart  to  charm,  and  to  con- 
sole humanity." 

The  rupture  of  liis  ties  with  the  Fraulein  von  F.  made 
Richter  very  desirous  to  remove  for  a  short  time  from 
Weimar,  where  he  was  constantly  meeting  her  family ; 
fortunately,  a  singular  circumstance  drew  him  at  this  time 
to  Berhn. 

The  previous  March  he  had  received  an  anonymous 
letter  from  Belgard,  Upper  Pomerania,  together  with  his 
Hesperus,  translated  into  French.  The  writer  promised 
to  make  herself  known  as  soon  as  an  answer  to  her  letter 
gave  her  courage. 

Richter  answered  immediately,  which  was  not  his  cus- 
tom to  anonymous  letters ;  and  the  lady  made  herself 
known  as  the  lady  Josephine  von  Sydon ;  French  by 
birth,  but  who  had  so  far  become  mistress  of  the  Ger- 
man language  as  to  read  it  with  ease,  and  to  translate  it 
into  her  mother  tongue.  Her  love  of  Eichter's  works 
had  excited  the  highest  admiration  for  their  author,  and 
an  ardent  desii-e  to  become  personally  acquainted  with 
him.  Richter  now  went  to  Berlin  to  meet  her,  with 
whom  he  had  formed  a  friendship  by  means  of  a  cor- 
respondence in  different  languages,  and  with  the  parti- 
tion wall  of  mountains  also  between  them. 

It  rarely  happens,  that  a  friendsliip  formed  without  a 
personal  interview,  through  the  charm  of  correspondence, 
will  not  disappoint  one  of  the  parties  when  they  meet. 


3l6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

We  have  none  of  the  letters  of  Josephine,  but  Richter's 
expectations  were  more  than  satisfied.  He  wrote  to  Otto : 
"  My  Josephine  has  increased  my  esteem  and  admiration. 
What  southern  naivete,  simpHcity,  and  openness,  carried 
to  almost  childish  excess ;  southern  animation,  firmness, 
and  tenderness,  with  a  true  German  eye  and  heaK." 

This  year  also,  in  the  midst  of  his  intimacy  with  the 
four  princesses,  he  wrote  his  Eulogy  of  Charlotte  Corday, 
the  female  Brutus  of  the  French  revolution,  in  every  line 
of  which  breathes  the  holiest  love  of  freedom.  Paul 
represents  Corday  as  sacrificing,  not  the  opposer  of  legiti- 
macy, but  the  tyrant  of  a  republic ;  and  has  the  boldness 
to  make  a  governing  German  count  a  fellow-admirer  of 
the  heroine.  He  defended  the  deed,  not  from  feeling,  but 
from  principle.  She  destroyed  Marat,  not  as  a  citizen, 
but  as  an  enemy  of  the  state,  in  a  civil  war ;  conse- 
quently he  regarded  her  act,  not  as  the  offence  of  an 
individual  against  an  individual,  but  as  the  act  of  a 
party  against  a  corrupt  and  apostate  member. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

richter    removes    to    berlin.  —  introduction    to    caroline 
Meyer.  —  The  Meyer  Family.  —  The  "  Verlobung." 


ER-LIN  was  at  tliis  time  to  our  a.d.  isoo, 
Richter  a  newly  discovered  part  ^t-  37. 
of  the  world.  The  society  was  distinguished 
by  a  higher  culture,  a  more  refined  tone, 
through  the  accomplishments  of  the  women,  to  wliich 
the  beautiful  Queen  Louisa,  one  of  the  four  sisters,  lent 
a  splendor  and  a  charm  at  that  time  unequalled  else- 
where.    But  Richter  must  speak  for  himself. 

"  I  have  been  here  two  thirds  of  a  week,  and  must 
remain  the  following,  as  Offland,  on  my  account,  will  per- 
form the  Wallenstein.  I  have  never  been  received  in  any 
city  with  such  idolatry.  After  such  an  elevation,  I  can 
henceforth  only  sit  upon  the  steps  of  the  throne,  never 
again  upon  its  summit.  I  avoid  the  merely  learned,  and 
therefore  I  meet  with  no  envy  ;  but  only  a  too  warm  en- 
thusiasm, that  does  not  make  me  proud  of  myself,  but  of 
humanity.  How  it  refreshes  the  heart  to  find  tlie  same 
sighs  for  the  spiritual  in  a  thousand  hearts  that  arise 
in  mine,  and  prove  that  we  have  within  us  a  common 
heaven. 

"  The  splendid  queen  invited  me  immediately  to  Sans 
Souci.    Heavens  !  what  simplicity,  frankness,  accomplish- 


3l8  LTFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

ment,  and  beauty  !  I  dined  \vitli  ber,  and  sbe  sbowed  me 
the  kindest  attention.  Tbe  learned  ZoUner  invited  eighty 
persons  to  meet  me  at  the  York  Lodge ;  gentlemen,  their 
wives  and  daugliters,  of  the  learned  circles.  I  have  a 
watch-chain  of  the  hair  of  three  sisters,  and  so  much 
hair  has  been  begged  of  me,  that  if  I  were  to  make  it 
a  traffic,  I  could  live  as  well  from  the  outside  of  my  cra- 
nium as  from  what  is  under  it. 

"  I  have  been  often  with  the  highly  accomplislied  min- 
ister. Von  Alvensleben.  The  tone  at  the  court  table  was 
easy  and  good ;  with  Alvensleben  one  may  speak  as  freely 
as  upon  this  sheet.    Only  in  Berlin  is  freedom  and  law  !  " 

The  reader  will  recollect,  that  when  Jean  Paul  was 
nameless,  and  struggling  Avith  the  waves  of  poverty,  that 
nearly  made  shipwreck  of  his  hopes,  from  Berlin  was  the 
first  plank  thrown  that  brought  him  to  land.*  Now  he 
says,  "  they  threw  a  couple  of  worlds  upon  his  head." 

The  impression  that  he  made  upon  the  Berlinians  we 
learn  from  the  journal  of  a  lady  at  this  time  published. 
She  says :  "  Among  the  wonderful  peculiarities  of  our 
time,  and  from  which  our  country  will  receive  a  distin- 
guished radiance,  is  the  appearance  of  Jean  Paul.  As 
yet,  few  among  us  know  him,  but  those  who  have  seen 
him,  look  upon  him  as  an  apparition  i'rom  another  world, 
as  a  proi)hct  who  has  come  thence  to  perform  miracles 
incomprehensible  to  the  senses.  No  one  had  scented  his 
approach  ;  of  so  rare  a  man,  no  one  had  received  an  idea. 
Like  a  Vjeam  of  light  he  flashed  among  us,  but  cheering 
as  tlie  star  of  day  is  his  lingoi-iiig  here,  lie  cannot  be 
more  than  forty,  though  he  lias  a  l)ald  head.  All  the 
riches  of  language  appear  to  have  been  cieated  lor  him. 

*  Moritz,  in  Berlin,  from  whom  he  received  a  hundred  ducats  for  the 
manuscript  of  the  Invisible  Lodge. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  319 

Nature  is  his  dwelling,  customs  his  playthings,  and  men 
his  machines.  Like  the  sun  he  shines  through  the  cur- 
tains of  art,  and  the  labyrinth  of  the  heart,"  etc. 

It  was  not  only  in  the  journals  of  ladies  that  Richter 
was  favored ;  the  beautiful  queen,  whose  fate  has  thrown 
a  touching  interest  over  everything  relating  to  her,  con- 
tinued firm  and  steady  in  her  friendship.  She  never 
spoke  of  him  but  with  a  deep  feeling  of  his  worth  as  a 
man  and  an  author ;  and  with  the  brother  of  the  queen, 
Prince  George  of  Mecklenburg,  he  formed  a  friendship 
that  was  uninterrupted  till  his  death.  In  Schleiermacher 
he  found  a  congenial  spirit,  and  formed  many  friendships 
with  distinguished  women. 

Taking  into  view  all  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  Richter  should  form  the  resolution  to  remove 
to  Berlin,  and  fix  there  his  permanent  residence.  A 
secret  and  unacknowledged  inclination,  as  well  as  an  un- 
seen and  Providential  hand  guided  him  to  the  happiness 
he  had  so  long  been  seeking.  The  separation  from  his 
fiiends  the  Herders  cost  him  some  painful  and  lingering 
hours,  but  a  more  powerful  wish  drew  liim  onward,  and 
before  the  end .  of  the  year  he  had  accomplished  his 
removal. 

It  was  in  October,  1800,  that  Richter  finally  made  in 
Berlin  his  permanent  residence.  On  his  jirst  visit  at  the 
festival  that  Zollner  made  for  him  at  the  York  Lodge, 
he  met  the  upper  tribunal  counsellor,  Meyer,  and  his  two 
unmamed  daughters.  A  little  accident,  his  being  too  late 
to  take  the  place  assigned  him  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
president,  brought  him  to  an  unoccu^^ied  seat  at  the  side 
of  Caroline,  the  second  daughter  of  the  counsellor.  It 
was  the  only  vacant  place  at  the  table,  and  the  young 
lady's  heart  began  to  beat  when  she  saw  the  wonderful 


320  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

man,  the  observed  of  all  observers,  approach  it,  and  with 
timid  humility  she  shrank  from  supporting  a  conversa- 
tion -with  liim  ;  but  as  Richter  had  come  from  dining  at 
Sails  Sonet,  the  conversation  about  the  queen  and  the 
court  immediately  became  interesting.  The  mildness  and 
friendliness  of  Paul's  manner  wrought  a  sudden  change 
from  timidity  to  the  most  ingenuous  confidence  in  the  soul 
of  Caroline  Meyer.  Richter,  in  his  personal  appearance 
and  manners,  exerted  a  magical  influence  over  all  minds, 
and  nothing  interested  him  so  deeply  as  the  imveiling  of 
an  innocent  female  heart.  He  was  touched ;  and  at  rising 
from  the  table  gave  Caroline  the  flower  from  his  breast, 
and  asked  her  to  present  him  to  her  fatlier.  It  happened 
that  her  sister  Ernestine,  who  sat  opposite  at  the  table, 
and,  like  a  true  woman,  had  observed  the  impression  that 
had  been  made  on  Caroline,  now  met  them  with  her 
father.  They  had  seen  in  his  eyes  an  expression  of  high 
esteem  for  Jean  Paul,  and,  secretly  happy,  about  midnight 
they  left  the  party.  Richter  led  the  sisters  through  tiie 
long  avenues  of  the  garden  to  their  carriage,  wifliout 
either  expressing  the  wish  to  meet  again,  and  bade  them 
silently  good  night.  One  day  only  was  permitted  to  pass 
before  he  called  at  the  house  of  the  Rath,  with  the  ex- 
cuse that  he  could  not  leave  Berlin  without  expressing 
liis  gratitude  for  the  agreeable  evening  he  had  passed  at 
the  York  Lodge. 

But  before  we  proceed  with  the  w^ooing,  we  must  learn 
something  of  the  family  of  the  Gelieimer-Rath  Meyer. 
He  was  himself  one  of  the  most  accomj)lislied  and  distin- 
guished oflicers  of  the  Prussian  government,  and  had  mar- 
ried early  in  life  a  daughter  of  the  family  of  Germers- 
hause,  who  had  been  educated  in  country  simplicity,  but 
in  all  the  severity  of  the  orthodox  faith  ;  and  even  after 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  32I 

her  marriage,  she  remained,  out  of  childlike  love,  in  blind 
subjection  to  the  will  of  her  mother. 

Herr  JNIeyer  was  a  man  who  cherished  a  high  ideal  of 
life  and  its  duties  ;  and,  uniting  the  most  agreeable  accom- 
plishments with  the  most  enlightened  views,  he  moved 
in  the  distinguished  circles  of  Berlin,  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting men  of  the  period.  By  the  intolerance  of  his 
mother-in-law,  and  the  blind  subjection  in  which  she  held 
the  will  of  her  daughter,  he  was  either  deprived  of  the 
enjoyment  of  his  refined  tastes,  or  obliged  to  live  in  con- 
tinual discord  with  his  relations.  The  numerous  sacri- 
fices that  he  made  to  his  mother-in-law  only  increased 
her  asperity,  and  his  wife  always  taking  the  side  of  her 
mother,  at  last  a  coldness  and  estrangement  arose,  that 
after  seven  years  of  married  life  resulted  in  a  mutual 
agreement  of  separation. 

But  as  Providence  had  denied  him  a  son,  and  Herr 
Meyer  desired  for  his  daughters  the  most  liberal  culture, 
and  the  modern  accomplishments,  which  he  could  not  de- 
pend on  the  mother  to  sanction,  they  formed  the  singular 
agreement,  that  the  weeks  should  be  passed  alternately 
with  either  parent ;  and  actually,  every  eight  days  the 
children  were  sent  backwards  and  forwards  between 
father  and  mothei-.  This  strange  arrangement,  which  re- 
mained a  mystery  to  their  young  hearts,  was  a  perpetual 
occasion  of  self-denial  and  self-government.  They  dared 
not  speak  of  either  parent  in  the  presence  of  the  other  ; 
and  the  constant  exchange,  now  from  severe  religious 
simplicity  to  all  that  was  refined  and  intellectual  in  social 
life,  and  now  from  the  latter  to  an  almost  Moravian  soli- 
tude, must  have  promoted  in  the  minds  of  the  daughters 
an  early  development,  and  given  them  a  strong  and  entire 
dependence  on  each  other,  as  well  as  on  themselves. 
14*  n 


322  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

In  their  earliest  years  the  children  hung  fondly  on  tlie 
mother,  whose  tears  they  vainly  tried  to  wipe  away  when 
they  left  her,  and  whose  sacrificing  mother's  love  knew  no 
limits  ;  but  as  they  grew  older  they  found  opening  to 
them  under  the  father's  roof,  a  rich  school  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  their  liigher  faculties,  to  the  value  of  wliich  tJiey 
soon  became  sensible.  The  most  zealous  desire  for  a 
refined  culture,  especially  in  philosophy,  poetry,  and  the 
arts,  filled  the  soul  of  their  father.  Every  moment  that 
he  could  Avin  from  his  duties  as  a  servant  of  the  state  he 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  his  own  and  his  daughters' 
taste,  in  the  beautiful  arts  of  poetry,  music,  and  painting. 
Above  all  in  importance  was  the  cultivation  of  the  moral 
purity  of  his  children,  whom  he  anxiously  protected  from 
the  influence  of  everything  low  and  trivial.  He  provided 
them  with  the  best  teachers,  and  filled  his  house  with 
paintings  and  other  of  the  choicest  works  of  art.  Thus 
was  linked  in  their  opening  minds,  in  company  with  art- 
ists, learned  men,  and  poets,  a  susceptibility  to  everything 
great  and  good,  which  in  this  family  was  innate  and  true, 
but  which  an  unsym])atliizing  world  calls  transcendental- 
ism, when  affected  ibr  purposes  of  vanity  or  display. 

Upon  minds  so  prepared  by  education,  the  acquaintance 
of  Jean  Paul  must  have  made  a  deep  impression  ;  it  had 
already,  in  that  evening  at  the  York  Lodge,  woven  a 
sweet  enchantment  about  the  heart  of  Cai'oline,  and  when, 
after  the  interval  of  a  day,  in  which  her  imagination  had 
dwelt  exclusively  upon  him,  he  made  the  unhoped-for 
visit,  he  stood  near  her  as  a  being  that  she  must  regard 
with  almost  religious  veneration. 

A  report  had  been  spread  in  Berlin,  that  Caroline  was 
about  being  betrothed  to  her  cousin  ;  and  Jean  Paul,  to 
leave  her  entirely  free,  returned  to  Weimar  without  any 
express  manifestation  of  his  wishes. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  323 

His  image,  however,  was  interwoven  in  all  the  social 
enjoyments  of  the  family  ;  but  Caroline's  father,  with  a 
quick  and  nice  sense  of  the  honor  of  his  daughter,  had 
coldl}'  and  severely  commanded  that  there  should  be  no 
reference  to  him.  The  gossips  of  Berlin  spread  a  report, 
that  Caroline  had  kissed  the  hand  of  Jean  Paul  in  public, 
and  the  father,  jealous  of  the  slightest  shade  on  the  deli- 
cacy of  his  daughter,  forbade  her  to  speak  of  him,  until  he 
should  himself  make  some  more  decided  demonstration  of 
his  wishes.  This  command  was  the  occasion  of  the  fol- 
lowing letter  from  Caroline  to  her  father :  — 

"  It  is  a  great  pity  that  we  caimot  receive  the  noblest 
and  best  among  men  with  interest  and  warmth.  I  feel 
indeed,  dear  father,  that  I  have  thereby  lost  your  esteem. 
It  pains  me  much,  but  the  consciousness  alone  that  I  am 
free  from  all  enthusiasm  and  all  extravagance  in  esteem- 
ing and  admiring  such  excellence  raises  me  in  a  certain 
degree  above  all  mortification.  Your  dissatisfaction  with 
me  aiises  from  the  suspicion  that  something  different  from 
reverence  has  taken  possession  of  my  heart.  Did  you 
know  how  pm*e,  how  inexpressibly  pure,  my  interest  in 
Jean  Paul  is,  a  man  like  you  could  not  on  that  account 
esteem  me  less.  "With  Leonora  in  Tasso,  I  can  say,  '  I 
love  in  him  only  what  is  most  excellent  and  most  exalted.' 
Ask  yom'  own  judgment  whether  tliis  is  extravagance. 
Truly,  a  more  exalted  man  we  can  never  meet. 

"  Perhaps  you  still  misunderstand  me.  I  must  bear  it, 
and  I  should  be  too  proud  to  justify  what  I  think  and 
feel  to  any  other  than  my  father.  Of  his  writings  permit 
me  to  say,  that  the  influence  they  exert  upon  me  is 
exactly  that  which  you  demand  from  a  good  book,  namely, 
to  be  made  wiser  and  better.  Is  what  he  gives  me  un- 
sound ?     Its  efifect  then  must  be  as  wonderful  as  if  poison 


324  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

in  a  medicine  were  changed  into  a  healing  blessing.  I 
have  indeed  become  better,  and  feel  within  myself  the 
power  to  improve.  Tliis  meeting  has  been  the  most 
momentous  circumstance  of  my  life,  and  I  know  nothing 
except  this  emotion  in  my  heart  that  can  ever  make  me 
happy  or  unhappy.  Nothing  outward,  nothing  thaf 'men 
reckon  fortune  or  happiness,  can  charm  or  interest  me 
again ;  and  if  Providence  should  prepare  trials  for  me,  I 
shall  not  be  unhappy. 

"  One,  a  sore  trial,  I  feel  it  deeply,  dear  father,  is  the 
doubt  of  your  love.  It  may  be  that  I  have  deserved  to 
lose  it ;  and  on  this  point  my  tears  of  regret,  but  not  of 
repentance,  must  flow ! 

"  Never  was  I  less  excited  or  extravagant  than  now. 
Yes,  I  will  cherish  this  sentiment.  It  does  not  injure 
me ;  I  will  conceal,  but  not  part  with  it.  I  see  indeed 
that  it  will  be  my  first  struggle  to  suffer  silently  if  the 
sanctuary  of  my  emotions  is  violated.  The  warmth  with 
which  I  have  written  Avill  be  with  you,  dear  father,  my 
apology  for  writing." 

In  reading  this  letter,  in  which  Caroline  avows  such 
faith  in  Richter,  and  such  confidence  in  the  truth  of  her 
own  feelings,  we  must  recollect  that  they  had  never 
spoken  of  love,  their  eyes  had  met,  and  her  destiny  was 
decided ;  and  if  Providence  had  so  decreed  that  they  had 
never  met  again,  Caroline  would  have  mourned  him  in 
widowhood  of  heart.  In  the  same  happy  confidence  she 
wrote  to  her  married  sister :  — 

"  I  believed  I  should  have  been  unhappy  when  we  were 
separated  ;  that  the  painful  reality  of  parting  would  drive 
me  from  the  ideal  height  to  which  his  presence  had  ele- 
vated me.  But  I  feel  a  courage  and  power  to  bear  life 
such  as  I  never  felt  before.  I  could  be  hapj)y  without  ever 
again  seeing  him  in  this  life." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  325 

The  elevation  of  a  pure  and  ideal  love  is  here  ti-uly 
expressed.  Caroline  felt  lierself  raised  above  the  acci- 
dents of  life,  and  happy  in  the  ideal  presence  of  the  being 
she  reverenced  above  all  others. 

But  Richter  had  not  left  her  without  some  slight  inti- 
mation of  his  wishes.  When  he  returned  to  Berlin,  in 
October,  Caroline  was  the  first  person  informed,  by  a  few 
lines,  in  which  he  asked  permission  to  visit  her  family 
that  evening.  Their  hearts  had  spoken  too  truly  for 
them  to  be  longer  silent ;  and  that  very  evening,  as  he 
conducted  Caroline  to  visit  her  mother,  his  tongue  was 
loosed,  and  their  destiny  forever  united. 

Early  the  next  morning,  kneeling  at  the  bedside  of  her 
father,  and  whispering  in  his  ear  that  Richter  had  spoken, 
Caroline  asked  his  blessing  on  their  love,  and  received 
this  consoling  assurance  :  "  My  child,  if  the  satisfaction  of 
your  father  can  add  anything  to  your  happiness,  believe 
me  no  union  could  give  me  so  much  joy.  I  feel  it  a  re- 
ward for  all  my  care  of  your  education."  Truly,  the 
father  must  have  been  as  unworldly  and  as  unselfish  as 
the  daughter,  for  Richter  had  not  the  prospect  of  a  dollar, 
except  those  he  could  coin,  as  Sir  Walter  Scott  said  in 
another  case,  "  from  the  rich  mine  of  his  intellect,  and 
stamp  with  the  mark  of  his  genius."  It  must  be  acknowl- 
edged, in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  this  connection  appears 
romantic,  if  not  imprudent.  Caroline  had  been  educated 
in  all  the  luxury  of  refinement,  at  least  in  her  father's 
house,  and  his  fortune  depending  on  his  office,  he  could 
give  his  daughters  no  dowry.* 

*  Caroline,  although  educated  in  the  luxury  of  refinement,  was  prob- 
ably accustomed  to  great  frugality  of  expense,  as  the  salary  of  a  Berlin 
Gehelmer-Rath  is,  in  some  instances,  only  two  thousand  florins.  Richter 
says,  in  one  of  his  letters:  "  She  is  cold  towards  all  ornament  in  dress, 


326  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Although  Jean  Paul  had  dedicated  his  Titan  to  prin- 
cesses, they  had  given  him  nothing  but  empty  praise  in 
return.  In  the  correspondence  with  the  Rath  INIeyer,  not 
a  word  is  said  of  property.  Richter  says,  when  he  asks 
the  father  for  his  daughter :"....  In  this  moment  of  my 
great  request  all  other  things  appear  too  little  to  be  touched 
upon  by  either  of  us.  I  approach  tlie  man  for  whom  my 
esteem  and  love,  even  without  the  relation  I  desire,  would 
be  almost  filial ;  as  his  feminine  tenderness  and  manly 
philosophy  have  together  nourished  the  root  of  this  beau- 
tiful flower  of  the  sun,  and  made  it  so  firm,  yet  so  tender. 
To  this  good  father  of  this  good  daughter  I  present  my 
short  but  weigh^sj  prayer.  Let  her  be  mine  !  she  will  be 
happy,  as  I  shall  be  ! " 

Herr  Meyer  answered  :  "  That  it  had  been  tlie  aim  of 
all  his  plans,  in  the  education  of  his  daughters,  to  prepare 
them  to  unite  themselves  to  sucli  men  as  himself,  and 
that  he  gave  his  unconditional  consent."  The  mother, 
also,  in  German  phrase,  sent  hcT  ja-wort,  and  the  betroth- 
ing of  two  noble  hearts  took  place  immediately. 

Paul  had,  at  last,  in  his  thirty-eighth  year,  found  the 
ideal  of  female  perfection  and  loveliness  that  had  always 
haunted  his  imagination.  He  says :  "  Caroline  has  exactly 
that  inexpressible  love  for  all  beings  tliat  I  have  till  now 
failed  to  find  even  in  those  who  in  everything  else  possess 
the  splendor  and  purity  of  the  diamond.  She  preserves 
in  the  full  liarmony  of"  her  love  to  me  the  middle  and 

but  not  to  the  necessity  of  maiden  neatness,  and  on  my  account  she 
puts  on  her  splendid  new  blue  dress,  to  which  I  have  added  a  white 
satin,  at  four  louis  d'ors,  together  with  a  hat  for  one  louis  d'or.  I  wish 
I  could  iian^  my  heart,  as  a  golden  ornament,  over  hers.  I  would  draw 
it  out  of  my  breast."  Richter  seems  to  have  had  a  passionate  admira- 
tion for  a  wiiite  hat  and  a  black  veil,  for  a  lady.  Clotilda's  hat  occu- 
pies a  large  space  in  Hesperus. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL,  327 

lower  tones  of  sympathy  for  every  joy  and  sorrow  of 
others." 

In  describing  her  to  Otto,  he  says :  "  She  has  the 
beauty,  rare  among  Germans,  of  a  dark,  soft  eye  and 
Madonna  brow,  ....  self-sacrificing  love,  without  equal ; 
modesty,  openness ;  and  in  the  midst  of  the  purest  love 
for  me,  her  heart  trembles  at  every  sound  of  sorrow.  She 
has  the  warmest  friends  among  women  and  young  girls, 
and  the  innumerable  visits  of  congratulation  that  she  re- 
ceived at  the  news  of  our  Verlohung  shows  how  much  she 
is  beloved  by  the  Berliners." 

"We  have  no  means  of  forming  a  judgment  of  Caroline 
Meyer,  except  from  her  letters  to  Richter;  which  have  all 
the  simplicity  and  tenderness  of  lOopstock's  Meta.  But 
they  are  only  the  beautiful  expression  of  a  submissiA^e 
tendeniess  and  boundless  reverence.  The  letter  to  her 
son,  which  will  appear  hereafter,  discloses  independent 
thouglit,  and  is  altogether  of  a  higher  order.  Mrs.  Austen 
says,  "  It  is  the  habit  of  Paul's  countrymen  to  require 
from  women  the  virtues  of  attached  and  industrious  ser- 
vants, rather  than  of  equal,  intelligent,  and  sympathizing 
friends  "  ;  and  although  Jean  Paul  in  so  many  places  in 
his  works  protests  against  this  tendency  of  his  country- 
men, and  pleads  most  eloquently  for  the  emancipation  of 
women  from  their  state  of  servitude,  his  minute  dii-ections 
to  Caroline  about  household  affairs,  whenever  he  leaves 
home,  look  as  if  he  had  readily  assumed  the  manly  supe- 
riority of  his  countrymen. 

Paul,  wliile  he  describes  in  Siehenkas,  with  exquisite 
penetration,  the  miseries  of  an  ill-assorted  union,  asserts 
that  he  shall  be  "  happy  if  one  falls  to  his  lot,  upon  whose 
opened  eyes  and  heart  the  flowery  eartli  and  beaming 
heavens  strike,  not   in    infinitesimals,  but   in  large  and 


328  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

towering  masses ;  for  wliom  the  great  whole  is  some- 
thing raoi-e  than  a  nursery  or  a  ball-room ;  one  who 
with  a  feeling  at  once  tender  and  discriminating,  with 
a  heart  at  once  pious  and  large,  forever  improves  the 
man  whom  she  has  wedded." 

The  coldest  of  Richter's  biographers  speaks  thys  of 
Caroline  :  "  Purity  of  mind,  unlimited  love  to  her  parents 
and  sisters,  and  benevolence  to  all  mankind,  were  native 
to  her.  She  added  inexpressible  reverence  for  Richter, 
and  unconditional  submission  to  his  wishes.  With  a  love 
for  all  that  was  beautiful  in  art,  she  had  very  moderate 
views  of  the  value  of  the  outward  in  life ;  great  enthu- 
siasm of  feeling,  and  througli  trial  and  experience  a  pene- 
trating knowledge  of  the  world ;  but  with  an  accomplished 
education,  and  almost  unlimited  resources  within  herself, 
her  outward  life  and  appearance  was  modest,  and  w'ithout 
pretension.  AVith  their  peculiar  education,  Caroline  and 
her  sisters  possessed  qualities  singularly  adapted  to  form 
the  hap])iness  of  domestic  life,  but  to  Caroline  only 
Providence  granted  this  satisfaction."  * 

She  was  marked  out  indeed  for  distinguished  happiness, 
and  the  biographer  goes  on  to  say,  "  that  no  female  nature 

*  The  eldest  sister  of  Caroline  liad  been  jilreadj-  three  j-ears  married 
to  Carl  Spazier,  who  was  at  this  time  the  editor  of  a  belles-lettres  news- 
paper (Eleganten  Zeiiung)  in  Leipzig.  After  a  marriage  of  many  out- 
ward dLfTiculties,  he  left  her  a  destitute  widow,  with  four  young  chil- 
dren. She  entered  upon  the  thorny  path  of  female  authorship,  and 
continued  their  literary  journal.  Jean  Paul  contributed  man}'  of  his 
ephemeral  pieces  to  its  pages,  and  Caroline  also  assisted  her  with  her 
elegiint  and  graceful  pen.  The  author,  to  whom  I  have  been  indebted 
in  this  biography,  F.  Otto  Spazier,  is  her  son. 

The  youngest  sister,  Ernestine,  married  about  the  same  time  with 
Caroline,  to  August  Mahlman,  died,  after  a  few  years  of  married  life, 
of  a  broken  heart;  occasioned,  as  her  nephew  says,  by  an  unfaithful 
husband  and  a  childless  marriage. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  329 

could  have  resisted  Paul.  Tlie  enchantment  of  his  smile, 
and  the  power,  the  magnetic  influence  of  his  eye,  —  the 
inspiration  and  elevation  that  was  enthroned  upon  his 
brow ;  the  musical,  but  toucliingly  tender  intonations  of 
his  voice,  together  with  the  mystery  that  involved  the 
author  of  Hesperus,  who  was  thought  to  have  lived  upon 
a  solitary  island ;  all  this  would  liave  given  every  woman, 
without  exception,  to  his  hand,  and  Caroline  had  the  feli- 
city to  be  chosen  from  all." 

She  had  beside  the  happiness  of  being  chosen  by  him, 
the  guaranty  of  that  happiness,  from  the  fact  that,  in 
sjjite  of  the  seductions  that  had  surrounded  him  at  a 
time  when  the  bonds  of  domestic  society  were  every- 
where falling  loose,  he  had  passed  through  all,  with  a 
singular  purity  of  life ;  among  all  the  women,  who,  as 
his  biographer  says,  "  would  have  left  at  his  call  lover 
or  husband,"  not  one  had  suffered  in  reputation  on  his 
account. 


CHAPTER    VII. 


Richter's  Petition  to  the  King  of  Prussia.  —  Marriage. — 
Caroline's  Letters  from  Weimar. 


UR  Richter  had  never  been  so  liappy  a.d.  isoi, 
as  the  few  montlis  after  his  betroth-  ■^'-  ^s. 
ment  to  Caroline.  The  learned  and  social 
circles  of  Berlin  had  many  charms  for  him. 
They  were  composed,  as  he  says,  of  Jews,  ministers,  offi- 
cei-s,  learned  men  and  women.  Tieck,  Fichte,  and  the 
Schlegels  showed  themselves  so  friendly  that  he  believed, 
in  his  simplicity,  he  should  win  that  school  to  himself. 
The  merely  learned  only  displeased  him.  To  use  his 
own  figurative  language  :  "  The  roots  of  their  dry  deism 
were  planted  in  sand,  and  bore  only  withered  leaves  and 
no  flowers  ;  and  no  breath  of  perfume  came  from  them." 
But  he  conceived  the  warmest  esteem  for  Scldeiermaclier, 
wliose  Reden  iiber  Religion  he  calls  "  an  inspired  and  in- 
spiring work,  a  simple  and  beautiful  temple,  whose  con- 
tents are  a  true  God's  service." 

At  t]iis  time,  spite  of  their  philoso])hioal  differences,  the 
exalted  cliaracter  of  Fichte  attached  Jean  Paul  intimately 
to  him.  He  also  renewed  his  acquaintance  with  Madam 
von  Krudener. 

From  the  exciting  tumult  of  the  society  of  the  gi'eat, 
where  he  wfis  courted  and  admired,  he  turned  with  a 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  331 

sense  of  domestic  tranquillity  to  the  quiet  circle  in  which 
his  betrothed  moved.  Tliis,  from  the  circumstance  of 
the  separation  of  her  parents,  was  necessarily  limited, 
although  they  were  not  excluded  from  any. 

The  queen  had  presented  them,  through  the  medium 
of  her  bi-other  George,  upon  hearing  of  the  betrothment 
of  Richter  and  Caroline  Meyer,  a  costly  service  of  silver, 
—  but  nothing  more  useful  or  enduring  appeared  in  pros- 
peel. 

In  the  mean  time  tlft  spring  returned ;  but  without 
some  pecuniary  provision  Richter  could  not  afford  to  re- 
main in  Berlin. 

"  Is  there  none,"  said  old  Gleim,  "  is  there  none  who 
can  say  to  the  king,  we  must  keep  J.  P.  F.  R.  in  Berlin. 
He  does  you  honor,  and  will  bring  money  into  the  city. 
Is  there  none  who  will  be  a  Colbert?  no  Scholenburg? 
no  Hardenburg  ?  no  Voss  ?  not  even  the  queen  ?  " 

Richter  at  last,  though  reluctantly,  addressed  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  the  king  :  — 

"  May  your  royal  majesty  be  graciously  moved  to  listen 
to  the  prayer  of  a  man,  that  not  only  from  dwelling  under 
your  government,  but  from  birth  and  disposition,  rejoices 
in  the  happiness  of  your  reign.  The  loss  of  my  father 
was  never  to  me,  but  through  me,  supplied  to  my  family. 
I  was  already  a  writer  at  the  .age  when  men  l^egin  to 
read.  Through  years  of  poverty  and  labor,  I  at  last  won 
a  hearing  from  the  public,  and  lately  a  more  extensive 
audience.  My  aim  has  been  to  elevate  the  sinking  faith 
in  God,  virtue,  and  immortality,  and  in  an  age  of  egotism 
and  revolutions,  to  warm  again  the  cold  humanity  of 
men's  hearts.  As  this  object  has  been  dearer  to  me  than 
any  other  reward,  I  have  sacrificed  every  other ;  time, 
health,  and  the  richer  winnings  of  other  pursuits. 


332  LIFE    OF   JEAN    PAUL. 

"  But  now,  when  I  am  entering  upon  the  cares  of  mar- 
riage, where  my  own  sacrifices  should  not  extend  to 
another,  I  feel  excused  by  my  conscience  if  I  petition  the 
throne  (that  has  so  many  to  listen  to  and  to  make  liappy), 
that  I  also  may  be  excused,  if  respectfully  I  submit  my 
prayer.  My  gratitude  and  joyful  sympathy  in  the  happi- 
ness of  my  country  will  be  the  same,  however  justice  and 
goodness  may  decide." 

The  king  in  answer,  gave  Richter  to  understand, 
through  one  of  his  courtiers,.  "  hBw  much  it  had  rejoiced 
him  to  observe,  that  by  his  talent  and  industry  alone, 
exercised  in  the  face  of  such  unfavorable  outward  circum- 
stances, he  had  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  litera- 
ture of  his  country.  He  was  not  indifferent  to  literary 
merit,  and  would  be  glad  to  have  Richter  remain  his  sub- 
ject ;  and  if  any  vacant  prebend  should  offer,  he  would 
remember  him." 

It  seems  to  us  almost  a  degradation  of  genius  like 
Richter's,  that  he  should  have  petitioned  in  vain  for  a 
small  ecclesiastical  benefice,  for  (although  some  humorous 
letters  passed  between  him  and  Otto  on  the  subject,  — 
Richter  saying,  "  that  he  should  place  watchmen  on  the 
church-towers  to  strike  the  last  hours  of  the  old  preb- 
ends," and  Otto  answering,  "  that  they  were  always  long- 
lived,  few  dying  under  a  hundred  years,")  he  received  no 
prebend.  He  would  have  been  fettered  also  under  the 
obligation  to  remain  in  Prussia.  Accordingly,  on  tlie 
27th  of  May,  after  a  solemnization  of  their  marriage  un- 
der the  eyes  of  their  father  and  of  the  dearest  friends  of 
their  house,  Richter  and  his  young  bride  left  the  dust  and 
noise  of  the  city  to  enjoy,  in  quiet  and  without  witnesses, 
their  long-dreamed-of  happiness. 

They  travelled  in  the  month  of  bloom  and  flowers  over 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  333 

the  beautiful  parts  of  Dessau,  visited  the  Herders  in 
"Weimar,  and  then  went  to  Meiningen,  where  Jean  Paul 
anticipated  for  a  time  to  establish  his  "  Portative  Par- 
nassus." 

Here  is  the  letter  of  Caroliiae  to  her  father,  a  week 
after  her  marriage. 

"  Weimar,  June  3,  1801. 

"  I  write  to  you,  my  beloved  father,  for  the  first  time, 
from  the  most  charming  resting-place.  We  arrived  last 
evening,  about  8  o'clock,  after  the  most  delightful  journey 
that  was  ever  taken,  except  the  pain  of  the  separation 
from  you,  that  often  made  me  insensible  to  many  lovely 
spots.  But  the  care  that  my  good  Richter  took  of  me, 
and  of  everything  that  could  touch  my  heart,  softened  my 
emotions,  gently  and  happily  !  Indeed,  there  are  few  such 
men,  —  so  sympathizing  and  attentive  to  the  smallest 
little  tilings,  and  to  all  the  actual  of  life 

"  As  we  approached  Weimar,  my  heart  began  to  beat. 
The  place,  beautifully  surrounded  with  hills,  lies  low,  and 
we  look  from  above  all  over  the  city.  It  is  larger  and 
gayer  than  I  expected,  and  there  is  much  life  and  joy 
everywhere.  In  the  morning  the  market  was  held  before 
our  door,  where  there  was  more  tumult  than  in  the  Berlin 
market,  and  twice  a  week  the  music  at  the  Stadthause 
imparts  a  cheerful  gayety  that  is  read  on  all  faces. 

"  But  now,  the  most  delightful  thing  that  could  have 
happened.  As  soon  as  we  arrived  on  Wednesday  even- 
ing, we  went  to  Herder's.  It  was  already  dark.  With  a 
beating  heart  I  stepped  into  the  sacred  house.  The  aged 
mother  sat  in  the  parlor  alone,  knitting.  Richter  opened 
the  door  quietly,  and  we  stood  before  her.  Her  surprise 
is  not  to  be  described.  She  looked  at  me  with  astonish- 
ment, —  ran   to   call   all   the   house   together,  —  turned 


334  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

back,  —  and  knew  not  what  to  do  for  joy.  Now  while 
we  debated  whether  Richter  alone,  or  whether  we  should 
both  go  up  to  the  Herders  at  once,  tlie  venerable  man 
stood  in  the  door.  I  discovered  him  first.  '  There  he  is,' 
I  said  with  emotion.  He  stepped  calmly  near,  and  turned 
me  with  penetrating  eyes  towards  the  light,  and»  as  he 
looked  fixedly  at  me,  '  God  be  praised,'  he  said,  '  I  am 
now  satisfied.'  He  was  surprised ;  he  had  formed  no 
image  of  me,  and  he  doubted  whether  llichter  would  be 
happy.  He  loves  me  now  equally  with  hina,  and  he  was 
as  much  moved  as  a  father  who  has  found  his  lost  chil- 
dren. He  went  in  great  emotion  up  and  down  the  apart- 
ment, —  then  he  came  again  to  me,  and  said  with  touching 
tenderness,  '  Yes,  you  are  what  he  must  have,  —  you  need 
not  speak,  we  see  already  all ! '  I  was  so  much  aflfei'ted, 
that  I  could  say  nothing,  and  the  evemng  passed  like  a 
quiet  festival. 

"  I  tell  you  all,  my  dear  father,  for  Richter  wishes  it, 
just  as  it  happened,  ibr  it  will  make  you  happy  to  know 
your  daughter  so  beloved ;  and  principally,  that  we  both 
know  from  this  sympathy  how  much  Richter  deserves  to 
be  loved. 

"  This  is .  infinite,  —  here  is  his  home.  Father  and 
mother  dwell  with  the  deepest  warmth  upon  what  he 
mutually  feels  for  them,  and  he  appears  more  splendid 
to  me  than  ever.  Indeed,  I  might  from  this  moment  date 
a  new  era  in  my  love. 

'■  I  cannot  describe  Herder  to  you ;  through  Richter 
you  know  enough  of  liim.  He  goes  quietly  in  and  out, 
so  reflective,  so  serious,  so  harmonious,  so  gentle  and 
musical  his  voice,  his  dress  so  patriarchal.  He  does  not 
affect  me  as  other  poetical  men,  as  notwithstanding  he 
has  an  iioii  firmness  and  decision  that  makes  weakness 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  335 

blush  before  him,  he  manifests  the  refined  politeness  of  a 
man  of  the  world,  Avithout  being  insincere.  He  has  so 
much  dignity  as  not  to  pardon  the  slightest  insult,  because 
he  esteems  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  not  on  account 
of  his  individual  worth,  for  he  is  so  modest  that  he  veils 
his  eyes  like  a  young  girl  who  is  praised  for  the  fu'st  time, 
if  his  own  merit  is  spoken  of. 

"  His  wife  has  far  exceeded  my  expectations.  She  has 
not  the  masculine  form,  but  only  the  manly  soul  that  I 
anticipated.  She  has  risen  with  her  husband,  but  she 
stands  firm  by  herself.  She  is  equally  acquainted  with 
ancient  and  modern  literature,  speaks  decidedly  upon  all 
the  sciences,  but  inclines  herself  in  a  loving,  motherly 
manner  to  me.  In  her  house  she  is  very  active  and 
busy,  but  without  littleness.  A  certain  well-to-do-ness 
rules,  without  luxury.  The  apartments  are  simply,  but 
cheerfully  furnished.  At  the  table  everything  goes  on 
quietly,  without  anxiety  in  the  hostess ;  the  old  servants 
are  well  trained,  moving  reverently  about,  observing 
attentively  the  master's  wishes. 

"  They  will  hardly  let  me  part  from  them,  but  we  are 
so  mexpressibly  happy  in  the  little  quiet  apartment  with 
Richter's  old  hostess,  that  we  would  always  rather  remain 
alone.  So  happy  as  I  am,  dearest  father,  I  never  believed 
I  should  be.  Every  minute  binds  our  souls  closer  to  each 
other.  It  will  sound  extravagant  to  you  if  I  say  the  high 
enthusiasm  which  Richter  excited  in  me  has  continually 
risen  as  we  have  entered  into  real  life  together.  Never 
can  a  misunderstanding  arise  between  us.  My  mind, 
through  love  and  the  highest  goodness,  is  so  tenderly 
tuned,  and  my  sense  of  obligation  so  elevated,  that  I 
never  as  formerly  despond.  How  could  I  place  my 
will  in  opposition  to  this  splendid  humanity  that  works 


336  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

only  through  love  and  humility  ?  Thank  God,  I  have  a 
husband  with  whom  love  in  married  life  can  only  take 
the  path  of  honor  and  morality  ;  one  that  I  must  obey,  as 
we  obey  vii-tue  itself  And  this  man  so  loves  me  !  that  I 
have  nothing  to  wish  but  that  we  may  die  together.  I 
press  myself  to  your  heart." 

It  is  but  just,  although  at  the  risk  of  satiety,  that  the 
reader  should  also  learn,  from  Richter  himself,  the  perfect 
happiness  that  he  imparts  to  Otto  thus  unreservedly. 

"  That  the  brightest  and  purest  fountain  of  love  to 
mankind  takes  nothing  from  love  to  the  individual,  I 
learn  from  my  Caroline.  Every  day  it  becomes  more 
expansive.  Rare  as  beautiful  is  her  adoration  of  the 
spiritual,  of  poetry  and  nature ;  wonderful  her  disinter- 
estedness and  complete  abnegation  of  self  There  is 
nothing  that  she  would  not  do  for  me,  or  others.  World- 
long  cares  are  to  her  nothing,  as  her  industry  and  love 
of  duty  are  infinite.  As  she  loves  me,  she  loves  all  my 
clothes,  and  would  make  them  all  herself 

"  As  yet  we  have  had  nothing,  or  only  very  little,  to 
irritate.  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  satisfied,  but  I  am  cer- 
tainly blest.  Ah,  see  her !  What  are  words !  Marriage 
has  made  me  love  her  more  romantically,  deeper,  infinitely 
more  than  before !" 

CAROLINE  TO   HER  FATHER. 

"  Weimar,  June  11, 1801. 
" ....  I  have  lived  a  very  happy  time  here,  and  have 
been  everywhere  received  with  more  hearty  warmth  than 
I  expected.  Herder's  sympathy  with  us  has  every  day 
increased  ;  indeed,  we  dwell  almost  wholly  with  them. 
Like  yourself,  he  loves  a  simple  drive  in  the  country  with 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  337 

his  wife  and  children,  and  tliere  he  is  often  a  child,  and 
sings  and  jokes  like  any  youth. 

"  I  have  also  been  presented  to  the  Duchess  mother. 
Afterwards  we  were  invited  to  dine,  with  no  company 
except  Wieland.  I  sat  between  liim  and  the  Duchess ; 
he  was  very  kind  to  me,  and  bade  me  make  Richter  truly 
happy.  He  is  very  old,  and  wears,  even  in  the  presence 
of  the  Duchess,  a  little  black  velvet  cap,  as  a  being  who 
stands  on  the  boundary  of  life  pays  no  regard  to  conven- 
tional observances. 

"  The  Princess  is  very  simple  in  her  apartment,  and  in 
all  her  surroundings. 

"  We  have  now  made  our  rounds  of  visits,  and  I  am 
rejoiced  that  our  last  day  can  be  undisturbed.  On  the 
17th,  we  journey  to  Gotha  and  Eisenach.  In  Gotha  my 
splendid  husband  will  visit  his  friend  Schlichtgeroll ;  this 
will  give  me  the  acquaintance  of  his  amiable  wife.  I 
seek  in  every  house  some  instruction  for  my  own.  Fare- 
well, dearest  father. 

"  C." 


15 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


Residence  in  Meiningen.  —  Letters.  —  Birth  of  Eichter's 
FIRST  Child.  —  Dog's  Petition. 


S  soon  as  our  Ricliter  and  his  bride 


A.  D.  1802, 
JJt.  39. 


Ui%/l\>A)'!  had   accomplished  what,  in  modern 

*^V|  I  phrase,  is  called  the  bridal  tour,  they  hastened 
to  the  enjoyment  of  what  had  always  been 
his  ideal  dream,  —  complete  social  independence,  in  im- 
mediate union  with  nature.  His  inclinations  drew  him  to 
Bayreutli  to  be  near  his  friend  Otto ;  but  he  felt  almost 
a  maiden  dilHdence  to  expose  the  intoxication  of  his  love, 
in  the  first  year  of  his  married  life,  to  his  old  female 
friends.  He  wished  also,  until  the  Titan  was  completed, 
to  be  near  the  accessories  of  princely  life,  which  the  little 
court  of  Meiningen,  retired  as  it  was,  could  furnish. 

They  established  themselves  in  Meiningen,  therefore, 
and  here  Jean  Paul  began  that  domestic  still  life,  that 
remained  uniiiterruj)t(Hl  till  the  day  of  his  death. 

A  letter  from  Caroline  to  Otto,  a  few  days  after  their 
entrance  into  their  new  abode,  shows  the  delicacy  and 
tact  of  the  woman,  who  felt  that  she  had  almost  taken 
the  j)lace  of  her  husband's  friend  in  his  heart. 

" '  When  you  have  taken  your  seat  at  Meiningen,  I 
shall  step  from  mine  and  go  to  you.'  So  you  write  to  us. 
Ilichter  has  already  established  himself,  and  waits  for  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  339 

beloved  Otto  to  make  the  promise  true,  and  come  and  fall 
upon  his  heart.  My  husband  leaves  the  invitation  to  me, 
and  the  information  that  we  are  ready,  and  that  you  can 
now,  without  any  hinderance,  accept  it. 

"  Our  young  furnisliing,  now  five  days  old,  has  a  thou- 
sand wants  ;  yet  you  will  find  Richter's  chamber  ordered 
iafter  the  old  fashion,  as  he  has  altered  nothing,  and  you 
will  feel  at  home.  IMine  is  also  domestic  and  friendly,  — 
yours  alone  is  wholly  poor,  that  you  may  not  remain  there 
long,  but  be  always  ready  to  run  up  to  us.  I  am  a  docile 
being,  and  will  exactly  obey  your  wishes.  You  shall 
arrange  all  after  your  own  domestic  order.  "We  will  be 
melancholy  or  gay,  and  we  will  celebrate  our  second  mar- 
riage-day, when  our  union  through  the  presence  of  our 
friend,  is  first  truly  consecrated. 

"  Rest  is  inexpi'essibly  welcome  to  my  husband  after 
■  a  tliree  weeks'  journey.  We  suffered  ourselves  to  be 
detained  fourteen  days  in  Weimai-,  for  the  sake  of  the 
charming  little  dwelling  of  the  good  hostess,  and  through 
the  love  of  the  Herders.  In  Gotha  we  received  Schlicht- 
geroU's  hearty  greeting,  and  the  following  evening  we 
selected  a  little  dwelling  in  Meiningen,  where  we  could 
unpack.  Now  we  only  wait  for  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
and  the  appearance  —  dare  I  say  it  ?  —  of  our  friend." 

A  letter  from  Paul,  of  a  later  date,  to  the  same  friend, 
completes  the  picture  of  domestic  life.  "  My  Caroline, 
who  wins  the  love  of  all,  —  of  the  men  by  her  beauty, 
and  of  the  women  through  her  enchanting  truth  and 
goodness,  —  constrains  me  by  happiness  to  be  contented 
here.  We  have  the  whole  place  for  friends.  Her  in- 
deed too  great  indifference  to  outward  life,  her  absorp- 
tion in  quiet  employment,  her  heavenly,  faithful,  virgin 
love,  her  unconditional  compliance  with  my  lightest  wish, 


340  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

makes  our  love  yet  younger  and  fresher  than  in  the  be- 
ginning, Avhen  it  was  merely  young.  That  you  will  fall 
in  love  with  her,  is  only  too  certain.  I  feel  that  marriage 
is  something  holy  and  heavenly 

"  As  yet  I  find  no  trouble.  If  I  have  a  guest,  I  seem 
to  sit  here  as  a  guest  myself,  so  elegantly  and  completely 
my  Caroline  knows  how  to  order  everything.  Tou  can- 
not know  the  whole  value  of  a  married  union,  as  you 
have  always  lived  with  sisters,  and  never,  like  myself, 
alone. 

"  The  whole  of  the  next  month  will  be  beautiful.  God 
send  me  you  or  Emanuel,  or  I  shall  go  to  you  in  the 
autumn  with  Caroline." 

A  letter  from  Caroline  to  her  father  follows.  "  O  my 
best  father,  how  do  I  thank  you  that  you  have  at  length 
written !  I  was  on  the  point  of  writing  again.  My  hus- 
band, as  we  sat  together,  was  speaking  of  the  incompre- 
hensibility of  your  silence,  — '  Could  there  be  a  letter 
mislaid  ? '  when  the  maid  brought  in  yours,  and  that  of 
Gretchen's.  With  how  many  tears  have  I  read  the  dear 
words.  I  live  so  simply  calm,  that  I  hold  fast  everything 
that  was  ever  dear  to  me,  —  and  your  image!  how  it 
takes  hold  of  me.  How  often  in  spirit  do  I  lean  upon 
your  shoulder !  But  that  it  renders  me  too  melancholy 
for  the  happiness  of  my  beloved  husband,  nature  often 
makes  me  so  tender,  that  in  very  longing  after  you  and 
my  mother,  I  should  sometimes  weep. 

"  I  came  here  with  uncertain,  timid  expectations.  The 
Duchess  of  IMeiningen  received  us  with  extreme  joy,  and 
showed  us  many  houses ;  but  this  made  me  really  melan- 
choly, and  the  first  niglit  I  slept  not  at  all,  for  all  my  fine 
dreams  of  domestic  economy  were  destroyed.  This  little 
city  is  not  so  ideal  as  I  had  imagined ;  few  of  the  houses 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  341 

have  gardens,  and  only  very  small  courts.  The  rooms 
are  large,  with  many  windows,  and  very  high. 

"  In  the  morning  we  went  in  pursuit  of  cheaper  and 
more  simjjie  dwellings,  and  were  so  happy  as  to  find  one, 
isolated,  but  with  very  respectable  domestic  conveniences. 
As  quickly  as  possible  we  were  in  it.  My  helpful,  never- 
faihng,  good-humored  husband  arranged  his  own  cham- 
ber, I  mine,  and  thus  we  were  at  the  end  of  the  first  day 
apparently  in  order.  The  rest  I  could  complete  with  all 
leisure,  and  now  the  clock-work  of  our  little  domestic  life 
goes  on  without  stopping.  Our  maid  is  active,  and  I 
hope  good. 

"  My  husband  is  perpetually  satisfied  with  all  as  it  is, 
and  I  form  myself  so  willingly  after  his  wishes,  that  in 
my  heart  I  feel  the  intimate  and  sweet  conviction  that  I 
can  be  to  him  all  that  he  needs.  Let  me  repeat,  that  I 
am  every  day  happier,  —  there  is  nothing  without  or 
within  to  disturb  us.  Now  when  the  moments  of  enthu- 
siasm are  over,  you  will  believe  that  my  judgment  is 
sound.  Richter  is  the  purest,  the  holiest,  the  most  god- 
like man  that  lives.  Could  others  be  admitted,  as  I  am, 
to  his  inmost  emotions,  how  much  more  would  they  es- 
teem him.  There  are  moments  when  my  soul  lies  kneel- 
ing before  him,  and  I  fear  only  death.  Every  one  finds 
him  stronger  and  fresher.  He  is  also  calmer  than  he  was 
in  Bei'lin,  and  his  life  is  more  regular.  We  rise  about 
six,  and  dine  at  twelve  o'clock.  At  the  latest,  Richter 
goes  to  bed  at  ten.  From  principle  and  economy  he  has 
left  off  wine,  and  drinks  only  beer.  He  is  in  everything 
at  the  same  time  so  kind  and  so  firm " 

The  reader  will,  perhaps,  think  there  is  too  much  of 
these  domestic  letters,  —  but  how  beautifully  are  they  the 
unstudied  expression  of  that  meek  and  enduring  love  that 


342  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

belongs  almost  exclusively  to  domestic  life,  in  which  Car- 
oline's heart  was  nourished,  as  the  flowers  are  fed  from 
the  light  and  the  dew  of  heaven. 

Only  one  more  letter  of  this  period  shall  find  a  place 
here.  It  is  a  little  note  that  Caroline  wrote  to  her  hus- 
band when  he  had  taken  a  short  journey  to  Leibenstein. 
It  was  their  first  separation,  and  in  answer  to  a  line  from 
him.  "  Ah !  could  I  fall  on  thy  heart,  and  thank  thee 
that  thou  hast  thought  of  me  !  I  stood  exactly  in  the 
same  place  on  the  floor,  covering  the  little  Spinde  with 
gauze,  when  your  letter  came.  As  you  left  me  yesterday 
in  the  carriage,  it  seemed  to  my  childish  fancy  that  the 
stranger  Jean  Paul,  that  did  not  belong  to  me,  sat  there, 
and  how  deserted  I  felt,  all  was  so  empty  and  void.  I 
stifled  my  regret,  and  went  into  your  chamber  and  put 
everything  in  order.  Your  handkerchief,  just  left,  had 
yet  some  warmth  in  it,  and  I  took  it  with  me.  Then  I 
had  nothing  more  to  care  for,  and  I  felt  a  great  loneli- 
ness. I  took  up  the  unbound  part  of  Titan,  and  ha\e, 
indeed,  read  it  wholly  through.  How  often  did  I  sink  at 
your  feet  as  I  read,  and  I  looked  opposite  to  your  sofa  as 
if  my  voice  would  reach  you.  Ah,  I  do  not  deserve  you, 
and  am  in  myself  nothing. 

"  To-day  I  wrote  letters.  It  is  wondei'fully  still  in  our 
quiet  dwelling.  No  one  has  been  here,  and  only  the 
newspaper-carrier  yesterday.  In  the  cellar  all  stands  in 
military  order.  It  gives  me  joy  to  obey  you  when  you 
are  distant;     How  heavenly  will  our  meeting  be. 

"  God  take  thee  into  his  holy  protection.     May   the 

sunbeams  kiss  thee,  and  I  be  worthy  to  deserve  thy  heart 

Farewell !    my  soul,  my  heaven.     Thine. 

"  C." 

The  eighteen  months  Richter  passed  at  Meiningen, 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  343 

flowed  with  that  quiet  uniformity  that  Caroline  loved  no 
less  than  her  husband.  Jean  Paul  was  so  much  sought 
after  by  the  Duke,  that  Caroline  mourns  over  his  too  fre- 
quent absences  from  her ;  and  Paul  writes  to  Otto :  "  I 
never  believed  that  a  prince  would  be  my  friend,  —  but 
the  Duke  is  nearly  that,  although  I  refuse  his  frequent 
evening  invitations,  sometimes  as  many  as  six  in  a  week. 
He  comes  to  us  often,  and  lately  he  dUied  with  us.  He 
would  build  me  a  house  here,  which  God  forbid,  as  I  seek 
no  eternity  in  Meiiiingen." 

In  the  winter  of  this  year  Paul  went  with  the  Duke  to 
Oberland  in  a  sleigh.  In  Newhouse,  he  says  they  gave 
us,  in  an  amateur  theatre,  a  comedy  by  four  peasants. 
"  It  was  performed  tlu'ee  times  in  the  day,  as  the  place 
was  too  small  to  admit  many,  and  the  old  company  went 
out  as  fresh  came  in.  From  time  to  time,  as  the  Duke 
and  the  Prince  of  Hesse  Philipsthal  sat  among  the  peas- 
ants, a  jug  of  good  beer  was  passed  backwards  and  for- 
wards, from  which  all  drank  in  turn." 

One  letter  more  from  Meiningen,  of  September,  1802, 
and  we  close  this  chapter. 

"  Dear  old  Friend  :  Your  expressions  over  my  wife 
touched  me  deeply.  You  should  have  had,  as  of  a  prin- 
cess, tlie  diarium  of  her  double  life,  —  but  indeed  it  lasts 
no  longer.  This  very  night  she  had,  with  her  still  con- 
tinued blooming  health,  pains  that  prevented  sleep 

About  eleven  o'clock  they  were  followed  by  a  godlike  little 
daughter.  Heavens  !  you  will  be  as  transported  as  I 
was,  when  the  nurse  brought  me,  as  out  of  a  cloud,  my 
second  love,  with  the  blue  eyes  wide  ojien,  a  beautiful 
high  l)row,  kiss-lipped,  heart-touching,  and  with  the  little 
nose  of  my  Caroline. 


344  LIFE    OF  JEAN   PAUL. 

"  God  is  near  at  the  birth  of  every  child.  Who  does 
not  find  him  in  tliis  incomprehensible  mechanism  of  pain, 
in  this  sublimity  of  his  exquisite  machinery,  in  this  pros- 
tration of  our  owii  independence,  will  ne^•er  find  him.  I 
concealed,  to  spare  my  wife,  as  well  as  I  could,  my  weep- 
ing admiration,  but  she  perceived  and  returned  much  of 
it.  In  my  solitary  ajjartraent  I  had  (ah,  how  I  wished 
for  you  or  Emanuel !)  only  my  own  rapture,  and  God,  and 
my  hound. 

"  It  is  a  large  child,  splendidly  formed,  wholly  like  my- 
self, which  rejoices  my  Caroline,  but  I  hold  modestly 
back  from  the  little  nose.  Only  on  her  account  did  1 
wish  for  a  boy,  —  but  I  tell  her  a  girl  will  be  dearer  to 
me,  as  our  parental  education  would  not  wholly  answer 
for  a  boy,  but  for  a  girl  it  will  be  everything  ;  and  with 
this  pure,  firm,  and  enlightened  mother,  she  can  be  noth- 
ing less  than  a  second  diamond. 

"  Now  is  all  again  well  with  me,  —  and  the  world  and 
heaven  are  open,  and  I  have  my  wife  again.  In  the 
midst  of  her  pain  she  yet  brought  me  my  breakfast  this 
morning.  Ah,  how  do  I  again  learn  to  esteem  and  pity 
the  poor  women.  I  have  the  best  people  about  me,  — 
the  pastor's  daughtei-,  wthout  equal, —  the  honest  waiting- 
woman,  &c.  Let  me  prattle,  good  old  friend,  to  you  and 
Amone,  —  you  are  the  first  listeners. 

"  To-day  I  went  to  the  Duke,  and  asked  him  to  give 
a  title  to  the  fairest  work  I  should  ever  give  to  the  pub- 
lic, lie  answered,  '  Georgine.'  *  Truly,  he  sympathizes 
kindly  with  human    feelings." 

Caroline  added  to  tliis  letter,  with  the  child  on  her  left 

arm,    "  Beloved  Otto  !  who  is  so  blest  as  I  ?  with  two  so 

dear  to  love ! 

"  C." 

*  George  was  the  prince's  own  name. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN   PAUL.  345 

One  other  little  incident  belongs  to  tlie  Meiningen 
residence.  On  account  of  the  hunting  season,  all  the  dogs 
of  citizens  were  put  under  arrest.  Richtei",  in  liis  attach- 
ment to  these  faithful  friends  of  man,  if  not  in  some  other 
characteristics,  resembled  Scott,  and  was  always  accom- 
panied in  his  rambles  by  one  or  more  dogs.  Upon  the 
decree  of  arrest  being  published,  he  sent  his  hound  to  the 
Duke  with  the  following  petition :  — 

"  That  I  may  accompany  my  master,  when  he  goes  to 
Welkershausen  or  to  Gi'immathal. 

"  I  can  bring  attestation  from  my  master  that  I  under- 
stand as  little  of  hunting  as  he  does,  and  that  I  keep  close 
beliind  his  stick  in  all  his  rambles.  And  the  only  game 
that  I  permit  myself,  is  what  the  government  advertiser 
recommends,  sometimes  a  poor  field  mouse. 

"  That  I  shall  lose  my  bread  if  my  master  dare  not 
place  me  outside  his  door,  where  is  indeed  my  only  sta- 
tion. I  constitute  his  animal  establishment ;  liis  poultry, 
his  pheasantry,  and  his  body-guard.  You  love  him  half 
as  much  as  he  does  you,  and  often,  when  you  have  been 
with  him,  you  have  had  the  grace  to  stroke  me,  poor 
hound,  and  to  say,  '  Come,  Spitz  ! '  Thus  will  I  confide 
in  my  fortunate  dogstar,  that  it  will  permit,  before  I  am 
cut  into  shoes,  and  worn  on  the  feet  of  others,  that  I  may 
appear  before  your  gracious  presence  upon  my  own." 

The  petition  was  granted,  and  Paul  was  permitted  to 
keep  his  dog. 

At  the  same  time  with  the  poet's  first  child  the  last 
volume  of  Titan  was  given  to  the  world.  It  had  been 
ten  years  in  progress,  and  during  that  time  the  author 
had  printed  several  minor  works. 

15* 


CHAPTER    IX, 


Titan. 


APPROACH  this  great  work  with  diffidence, 
with  real  humility,  and  feel  that  I  am  entirely 
incompetent  to  give  to  the  English  reader  a 
just  idea  of  a  work  so  tliorougldy  German,  so 
difficult  for  him  to  appi'cciate,  and  yet  by  wliich  Jean 
Paul,  if  he  is  read  at  all,  is  usually  appreciated  in  this 
countr}^  In  speaking  of  it,  I  shall  be  somewhat  indebted 
to  the  author  from  whom  I  have  already  quoted. 

In  the  ten  years  during  which  T'itan  had  been  xa.  pro- 
gress Jean  Paul  had  published  several  works,  all  of  which 
had  been  in  subordination  to  this.  His  commentator 
says,  "  that  of  this  the  Invisible  Lodge  was  the  cradle, 
and  the  others,  as  they  followed,  only  the  educators." 
And  as  I  have  said  before,  it  was  like  the  great  picture 
to  which  all  the  serious  and  sacred  hours  of  the  painter 
are  devoted,  while  others  of  less  note  take  up  his  casual 
moments,  and  are  tlie  nui^ses  of  the  inspiration  that  is 
lavished  upon  this. 

The  great  idea  of  Titan  is  that  which  so  many  poets 
and  romance-writers  have  endeavored  to  represent,  and 
which  Goethe  has  so  nobly  evolved  in  Faust,  —  the  lim- 
itations and  compensations  of  life,  —  that  all  power  as 
soon  as  it  aims  to  exceed  its  just  bounds,  breaks  down ; 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  347 

that  all  who  would  violate  the  laws  of  eternal  justice, 
necessarily  fail.  Hence  the  title  of  the  book,  taken 
from  the  contest  of  the  ancient  Titans  against  the  gods. 
"  Every  heaven-stormer  finds  his  hell,  as  surely  as  every 
mountain  its  valley."  In  Albano,  the  hero  of  the  novel, 
Richter  has  accomplished  the  object  twice  attempted  be- 
fore without  success  (in  the  Invisible  Lodge  and  in  Hes- 
perus), through  birth,  education,  trial,  and  experience  to 
form  a  perfectly  harmonious  character.  "  He  is  not,  like 
Victor,  a  man  seeming  and  feehng  only,  but  a  man  of 
deeds,  and  unites  with  the  highest  love  the  highest  sphere 
of  action.  He  is  not  merely  an  cesthetic  example,  but  a 
real  chai'acter,  in  which  life  and  action  are  identified  with 
poetic  representation."  And  yet  he  does  not,  I  think, 
enlist  so  mucli  the  sympathies  of  the  reader  as  Victor 
in  Hesperus  ;  his  treatment  of  Linda  is  perhaps  too  harsh 
and  stern. 

The  great  dissonance  in  Titan  has  probably  prevented 
many  from  going  beyond, the  first  volume.  During  the 
composition  of  the  first  half  of  the  first  volume  the  au- 
thor intended  to  give  it  the  tragicomic  cliaracter  of  some 
of  liis  other  works,  and  that  the  comic  should  enter  largely 
into  its  composition.  But  his  visit  to  Weimar,  and  in 
consequence  his  enlarged  range  of  characters,  especially 
his  connection  with  Madam  von  Kalb,  induced  him  to 
change  his  plan ;  to  make  it  a  senous  romance,  and  re- 
serve the  satirical  and  comic  elements  for  an  appendix. 
Through  the  last  half  of  the  first  volume  he  is  apparently 
contending  with  the  witty  and  satirical  manner  of  his 
early  works. 

The  outline  of  the  story  is  this.  Two  German  prin- 
cipalities, Ilohenflies  and  Haarhaar,  are  in  contention  for 
the  succession,  —  each  has  a  supporter,     Haarhaar,  the 


348  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

German  gentleman,  Von  Bouverot,  as  he  is  called,  a 
gambler,  a  voluptuary,  but  connoisseur  in  art,  who  fol- 
lows Luigi,  the  pretended  only  son  of  the  Hohenflies 
prince  to  Italy,  and  there  by  every  kind  of  excess  sub- 
jects him  to  a  lingering  dissolution.  The  supporter  of 
the  Hohenflies  dynasty  is  the  knight  Don  Gaspaiti  de 
Cesara,  who,  in  addition  to  his  devotion  to  the  old  prince, 
the  father  of  Luigi,  is  influenced  by  personal  revenge  for 
having  been  refused  the  hand  of  a  Haarhaar  princess. 
To  preserve  Albano,  the  second  son  of  the  old  prince  of 
Hohenflies,  from  the  arts  that  had  administered  a  slow 
and  consuming  poison  to  the  life  of  Luigi,  his  birth  is 
concealed,  and  he  is  educated  as  the  son  of  Don  Gas- 
pard ;  his  pai'cnts  having  entered  into  a  bond  that  at  the 
death  of  Luigi,  the  claims  of  his  birth  shall  be  established, 
and  that  he  shall  marry  Linda,  the  daughter  of  Don  Gas- 
pard.  To  keep  up  the  deception,  that  Albano  is  his  son, 
Gaspard  gives  himself  out  as  the  guardian  of  his  daughter 
Linda.  She  is  called  the  Countess  de  Romero,  and  is  left 
in  Spain  with  her  mother,  where  everything  conspires  to 
nurse  and  increase  the  eccentricity  and  romantic  enthu- 
siasm of  her  character.  Her  mother  soon  dies :  Linda 
is  left  without  female  influence,  and  at  liberty  to  travel 
wherever  her  love  of  independence  leads  her.  She  ac- 
cordingly goes  to  Switzerland,  and  there,  in  the  solitude 
of  the  mountains,  endeavors  to  establish  a  school  of  in- 
dustry and  innocence.  Not  succeeding,  she  removes  to 
Italy,  and  nourishes  her  passion  for  the  beautiful  by  liv- 
ing in  the  midst  of  the  monuments  of  art  in  that  exqui- 
site climate. 

Albano,  whose  parents  were  travelling  at  tlie  time,  was 
bom,  together  with  a  twin  sister,  at  Isola  Bella,  where  he 
remains  until  the  death  of  his  mother,  in  his  third  year. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  349 

He  is  then  taken  to  Germany  as  the  son  of  Don  Gaspard, 
and  placed  in  the  family  of  TVehrfritz,  the  provincial  di- 
rector, as  their  foster  son.  He  remains  secluded  in  the 
country  until  his  eighteenth  year,  and,  on  account  of  his 
resemblance  to  his  father,  the  old  prince,  is  not  permitted 
to  visit  Pestitz,  the  capital  of  Hohenflies.  He  grows  up 
a  powerful,  pure,  innocent,  well-instracted  youth,  endowed 
with  the  most  brilliant  and  attractive  qualities,  and  with 
a  beauty  of  person  that  charms  every  beholder.  While  a 
country  recluse,  he  has  that  longing  for  love  and  friend- 
ship?, the  intense  thirst  for  intercourse  with  great  spirits, 
that  Richter  makes  a  characteristic  of  all  his  heroes ; 
and  forms  in  imagination  an  attachment  both  of  love  and 
friendship  with  the  son  and  daughter  of  the  court  minister 
Frovlay,  through  the  medium  of  their  instructors,  who 
give  lessons  at  the  same  time  to  all  the  young  people. 

Don  Gaspard,  with  his  knowledge  of  the  romantic 
character  of  Linda,  and  by  the  help  of  his  brother,  an 
alchemist,  ventriloquist,  juggler,  and  liar,  makes  use  of 
magical  means,  deceptive  glasses,  and  voices  issuing  ap- 
parently from  the  clouds,  to  accomplish  liis  object,  the 
union  of  Albano  with  his  daughter ;  and  although,  from 
consciousness  and  pride  (for  the  same  means  are  prac- 
tised on  Albano),  they  avoid  each  other,  yet,  when  they 
accidentally  meet,  a  mysterious  influence  di-aws  them  irre- 
sistibly together. 

Before  this  takes  place,  however,  the  death  of  the  old 
prince  and  the  elevation  of  Luigi,  although  dying  slowly, 
allows  Albano  to  go  to  Pestitz.  With  his  fresh,  beauti- 
ful, ingenuous  character,  he  cements  his  secretly-formed 
friendship  with  Roquairol,  the  son  of  the  minister,  and 
his  love  for  Liana  is  confirmed  by  her  beautiful  feminine 
nature.     The  first  love  of  these  young  people  is  one  of 


350  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  most  touching  episodes  in  all  Richter's  works.  It  is 
a  Romeo  and  Juliet,  \\Titten  and  performed  in  heaven. 
Liana  is  one  of  those  spiritual  beings,  with  angelic  souls, 
and  almost  transparent  bodies,  that  Richter  loved  to  di'aw : 
disinterested,  religious,  humble,  sacrificing  all  to  duty,  and 
suffering  without  a  murmur.  She  lives  one  fleeting  spring 
of  happiness,  in  which  her  love,  hidden  like  the  perfume 
of  the  violet  in  the  heart  of  the  flower,  is  breathed  only  in 
whispers  ;  and  when  opposed  by  her  fiend-hearted  father 
and  her  icy  mother,  though  sensitive  as  the  wind-flower, 
she  remains  true  to  Albano,  and  will  only  renounce  her 
love  when  informed  of  his  royal  birth.  But  with  her 
love  she  renounces  life ;  and  the  death  of  the  young, 
usually  so  sad,  is  here  beguiled  of  melancholy  by  the 
beautiful  mysticism  that  surrounds  it  with  spiritual  ex- 
istences, and  clothes  Liana  with  the  robes  of  angels  before 
she  leaves  her  mortal  investment. 

Albano  is  taken  from  the  death-bed  of  Liana  to  Italy, 
where  he  meets  Linda.  Through  various  influences  she 
has  grown  up  a  dazzling  and  enchanting  being.  Albano, 
rich  in  fancy  and  full  of  love  for  all  that  is  beautiful,  is 
instantly  captivated.  The  character  of  Linda  is  said  to 
have  been  modelled  from  that  of  Madam  von  Kalb.  She 
is  bold,  proud,  free,  with  an  infinite  generosity  and  nobility 
of  soul.  Her  glowing  Spanish  heart  and  Italian  imagina- 
tion have  never  been  restrained  by  the  conventionahsms 
of  courtly  society.  Like  Madam  von  Kalb,  she  gives  way 
to  fits  of  passionate  jealousy ;  like  her,  she  avows  the  pe- 
culiar aesthetic  philosophy  upon  love,  —  "  that  love  needs 
not  the  bond  of  marriage,  that,  like  an  iron  ring  upon  a 
delicate  flower,  checks  and  destroys  its  tender  bloom." 
She  has  also  Madam  von  Kalb's  doubts  upon  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  and  even  her  occasional  blindness,  which 
in  poor  Linda  led  to  such  fatal  consequences. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  351 

Albano's  powerful  character  subdued  Linda's  pride; 
with  the  most  childlike  love  she  yielded  her  indepen- 
dence, and  her  haughty  nature  seemed  to  melt  away 
under  the  sun  of  love.  In  their  various  journeys  in 
Italy,  to  Ischia,  Isola  Bella,  and  the  palace  and  gardens 
of  Borromeo,  Richter  has  almost  surpassed  Madam  de 
Stael.  These  glowing  descriptions  are  more  unique  from 
the  circumstance  of  his  never  having  visited  the  places ; 
he  was  wholly  indebted  to  the  Duchess  Amelia  for  the 
perfumed  Italian  breath  of  the  whole,  which  cold  reality 
would  have  chilled. 

We  come  now  reluctantly  to  the  evil  genius  of  the 
romance,  Roquairol,  the  son  of  Froulay  and  brother  of 
Liana.  He  is  a  child  of  the  times,  a  victim  of  the  vicious 
institutions  of  society,  and  of  an  unsuitable  education. 
Richter  in  this  character  has  furnished  us  with  almost 
a  prophetic  example  of  those  artistic  paintings,  of  which 
we  have  seen  so  many  since  his  death,  and  in  France  even 
in  the  times  in  which  we  live.  An  example,  where  the 
culture  of  the  mind,  without  the  attendant  culture  of  the 
heart,  is  carried  so  far  as  to  excite  and  mislead  the  judg- 
ment of  the  wisest.  An  association  of  intelligence  and 
crime,  of  artistic  power  of  the  imagination,  united  with 
perversity  of  heart  to  mar  and  destroy  all  the  beauty  of 
the  painting.  But  Jean  Paul  has  not,  as  other  authors 
of  such  characters,  painted  his  hero  half  angel,  half  devil ; 
he  has  made  him  wholly  hateful :  he  has  not,  like  Love- 
lace, the  charm  of  gi-aceful  manners ;  nor,  like  Byron's 
heroes,  the  attraction  of  personal  beauty ;  he  excites  no 
sentiment  but  that  of  aversion,  and  when  he  falls,  pity 
even  cannot  regret  his  fate.  At  the  age  of  twelve  he 
conceived  a  violent  passion  for  Linda,  and  attempted 
even  then  to  shoot  himself  because  the  httle  girl  turned 


352  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

her  back  upon  liim  and  expressed  her  aversion.  Upon 
her  return  from  Italy,  and  when  Albano's  claims  to  her 
hand  were  acknowledged,  he  determined  to  add  revenge 
upon  Albano  to  the  fatal  resentment  of  his  murderous 
love.  A  slight  contest  arose  between  the  lovers,  occa- 
sioned by  Linda's  quickness  of  resentment,  and  Albano 
absented  himself  for  a  few  days.  According  to  a  psycho- 
logical law  of  love,  Linda  is  now  more  tender  than  ever, 
and  her  cold  independence  melts  under  the  thought  of 
estrangement.  Roquairol  forges  Albano's  handwriting, 
and  asks  for  an  interview.  Deceived  by  his  counter- 
feiting the  voice  and  di-ess  of  Albano,  and  by  her  even- 
ing blindness ;  seduced  also  by  her  OAvn  views  of  love, 
that  it  should  yield  all  without  the  bond  of  marriage,  the 
superb  and  proud  Linda  surrenders  all  to  the  madness 
of  Roquairol ! 

With  the  boldness  of  despair,  he  has  the  whole  history 
of  his  love,  and  its  catastrophe,  performed  in  a  tragedy 
he  had  already  written,  and  at  the  end  of  tlie  fourth  act 
shoots  himself.  Linda,  crushed  in  body  and  soul,  retires 
forever  to  her  living  tomb !  and  Don  Gaspard,  who  had 
thought  to  make  use  of  men  as  the  instruments  to  accom- 
plish his  aml)itious  purposes,  disappears  from  the  scene. 

But  the  romance  docs  not  end  thus  tragically  and  iiope- 
lessly.  Albano,  failing  twice  in  love  and  twice  subdued, 
—  by  the  physical  death  of  Liana  and  the  moral  death 
of  the  noble  Linda,  —  rises  again  above  his  fate.  The 
death  of  his  brother,  Luigi,  takes  place  at  this  moment. 
Educated  as  one  of  the  people,  and  prepared  to  regenerate 
the  corrupt  dynasty  to  which  he  belongs,  and  to  pour  heal- 
ing streams  into  the  impure  society  of  the  time,  he  ascends 
the  throne,  and  becomes  a  benefactor  and  reformer. 

Idoine,  a  princess  of  Ilaarhaar,  who  had  made  a  volun- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  353 

tary  vow  never  to  marry  beneath  her  rank  ;  and  in  a  little 
province  of  her  own  had  created  a  paradise,  where  pure 
morals,  religion,  industry,  and  happiness  prevailed ;  with 
a  strong,  rational,  yet  tender  and  beautiful  nature,  bears 
also  a  striking  personal  resemblance  to  Liana,  —  and  the 
romance  ends  with  her  union  with  Albano. 

This  is  a  rough  outline  of  the  plan  and  action  of  Titan. 
"Within  it  revolves  much  that  is  great  and  beautiful  and 
touching  in  life ;  almost  all  the  errors  and  sorrows  and 
pains  of  humanity ;  love,  in  all  its  forms,  from  its  delicate 
fragrance,  like  that  of  the  lily  of  the  valley,  to  the  volcanic 
flame  that  burns  and  destroys  ;  nature,  in  the  idylUc  sim- 
plicity of  German  village  life,  in  ornamented  parks  and 
gardens,  in  Alpine  mountains,  and  in  the  intoxication  of 
spring  in  the  Italian  climate ;  art,  from  the  breathing 
tones  of  the  flute  to  the  noble  beauty  of  Grecian  sculpture  ; 
poetry,  delicate  irony,  hidden  satire,  and  broad  humor. 

Throughout  the  whole  work  an  elevated  poetic  justice 
is  preserved ;  not  the  common  conventional  justice  that 
demands  vice  to  be  punished  and  virtue  rewarded  in  this 
world,  but  a  deeper  philosophy,  in  which  the  mind  itself, 
and  the  affections,  though  crushed  and  disappointed,  are 
their  own  reward.  Thus  Albano,  twice  broken-hearted, 
stands  at  last,  great  in  himself  and  in  his  own  integrity, 
■with  the  bride  he  had  chosen  from  her  resemblance  to  his 
first  love,  upon  the  elevation  his  experience  and  trials 
and  his  own  great  qualities  fitted  him  to  adorn. 

Liana,  the  humble,  pure,  gentle  being,  the  victim  of  an 
unsuitable  education ;  too  tender  for  the  winter  of  this 
rough  life,  is  happy  in  death,  because  she  feels  that  Al- 
bano will  be  thus  i-estored  to  his  birthright,  and  by  a 
beautiful  spiritual  mysticism  she  wiU  stiU  be  tlie  pro- 
tecting guardian  of  her  earthly  love. 


354  I^IFK    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

It  is  only  against  the  fate  of  the  romantic,  and  proud 
Linda  that  every  reader  rebels.  Richter  received  many 
letters  entreating  him  to  alter  or  avert  it.  Jacobi  even 
threatened  him  with  the  loss  of  his  friendship  if  he  left 
her  under  the  sentence  of  this  moral  death.  But  Richter 
adhered  to  his  purpose,  which  was  to  give  a  lesson  'of  hu- 
mility to  those  who,  strong  in  self-reliance,  throw  aside 
tlie  guards  of  custom,  the  sanction  of  laws,  as  unnecessary 
to  their  more  refined  and  spiritual  natures.  But  Linda, 
even  in  the  moment  of  her  humiliating  grief,  is  consoled 
by  the  momentary  belief  that  Albano  may  be  her  brother, 
and  that  she  may  have  been  saved  from  a  deeper  and 
more  ten'ible  fate. 

Many  other  characters  revolve  around  these,  the  prin- 
cipals in  tlie  drama.  Schoppe,  the  former  Leibgeber, 
appears  again,  crazed  by  the  philosophy  of  Fichte,  ever 
accompanied,  and  trying  in  vain  to  escape  from  his  Ich 
(me)  ;  Dian,  a  Greek  artist,  and  his  simple  and  affec- 
tionate Greek  wife,  existing  in  an  atmosphere  of  beauty  ; 
the  minister's  lady,  cold  and  ascetic ;  the  princess  bride 
of  Luigi,  a  malicious  and  heartless  coquette  ;  Spener,  the 
court  chaplain,  proud  of  his  sanctity,  and  of  his  spiritual 
power,  etc.,  etc. 

The  four  volumes  of  the  Titmi  were  printed  in  three 
successive  years.  Great,  indeed,  was  the  disappointment 
of  the  reading  public,  when,  after  ten  years  of  expecta- 
tion, the  first  volume  made  its  appearance.  The  discrep- 
ancy between  its  first  and  last  portions  displeased  both 
parties  of  Richter's  admirers.  Those  who  loved  Jean 
Paul's  earlier  maimer  were  disapi)ointed  to  lose  it,  and 
tlie  admirers  of  his  serious  romances  were  displeased  at 
the  intrusion  of  the  comic  into  this.  The  second  volume, 
containing  the  cjiisode  of  Liana,  appeared  at  the  end  of  a 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  355 

year,  and  was  violently  condemned  as  sentimental,  mys- 
tical, too  much  in  the  style  of  the  fashionable  weeping 
school  of  fiction.  When  at  length  the  last  two  volumes 
came  out,  disclosing  the  moral  annihilation  of  a  being  so 
charming  to  the  imagination  of  every  reader  as  Linda, 
indignation  was  added  to  disappointment.  Just  then  the 
battle  of  Jena  occurred,  and  more  important  concerns  took 
its  place  with  the  reading  public.  Like  all  really  great 
works.  Titan  has  survived  the  popular  disapprobation ;  and 
the  more  it  is  read  the  more  it  will  be  acknowledged  a  work 
of  exalted  genius,  pure  morality,  and  perennial  beauty. 

Spazier,  whom  I  have  so  often  quoted,  tells  us  that,  in 
the  last  weeks  of  the  poet's  life,  when  he  was  engaged 
with  him  in  a  revision  of  his  whole  works  for  a  new  edi- 
tion, Richter  had  determined  by  an  earlier  development, 
and  more  psychological  analysis  of  the  character  of  Linda, 
to  show,  that,  with  her  previously-formed  ojjinions  and 
education,  the  catastrophe  was  unavoidable.  And  to  illus- 
trate more  fully  the  axiom,  "  that  character  and  destiny 
are  the  same  thing." 

How  much  it  is  to  be  regretted  he  did  not  live  to  fulfil 
his  intention ;  that  an  author  who  touches  the  sick  heart 
so  tenderly,  that  if  for  purposes  of  art  he  must  lay  bare 
the  inmost  recesses  of  weakness  and  frailty,  covers  them 
again  from  the  cutting  air  of  scorn  with  the  downy, 
warm  breast  of  pity  and  lo\'e,  should  have  left  a  passage 
that  cannot  be  read  without  deep  mortification  and  pain. 

Note.  —  The  above  very  imperfect  account  of  the  Titan  has  been 
rendered  superfluous  by  the  admirable  translation  of  that  work  by  the 
Eev.  Charles  T.  Brooks. 

Every  English  reader  can  now  reaffirm  that  which  has  been  so  elo- 
quently said,  "  That  the  name  of  Jean  Paul  will  be  held  in  affectionate 
esteem  as  long  as  the  sorrows  of  humanity  elicit  pity,  the  joys  of 
friendship  yield  satisfaction,  the  moral  virtues  command  reverence,  or 
the  love  of  God  and  the  hope  of  Heaven  have  disciples." 


CHAPTER    X. 

RiCHTER   LEAVES  MeININGEN.  — REMOVES  TO  COBURG.  —  BiRTH  OF 

HIS  Son.  —  Death  of  Herder.  —  "  Flegeljahre."  —  Bay- 

EEUTH. 


HE  work  that  succeeded  the  Titan,  a.  d.  1803, 
the  Flegeljahre,  is  perhaps  the  -^'-  *°- 
most  personal  of  all  the  works  of  the  poet. 
While  writing  it  his  desire  to  return  to  the 
place  of  his  birth,  the  land  of  his  youthful  hopes  and 
dreams,  became  irre[)ressible. 

He  would  not  let  the  Duke  of  Meiningen  become  ac- 
quainted with  his  wish  from  any  other  lips  than  his  own  ; 
he  wrote  to  him,  therefore,  "  That,  like  wandering  rats  in 
the  spring,  he  felt  an  irresistible  instinct  to  move,  and  that, 
\vith  wife  and  child  and  dog,  lie  should  depart  in  May, 
and  draw  nearer  to  the  Fichtelgebirge." 

The  Duke  answered,  "  That  he  was  not  enough  of  a 
naturalist  to  understand  the  species  of  wandering  rats 
called  geniuses,  though  he  believed  he  knew  one  genius 
sufficiently  to  call  liim  his  friend."  He  gave  his  consent 
with  extreme  reluctance,  and  Paul  found  it  difficult  to 
resist  his  earnest  entreaties,  and  his  princely  offer  to  build 
him  a  convenient  dwelling,  to  let  him  import  his  favorite 
Bayrcuth  beer,  free  from  impost,  and  to  add  every  new 
book   to    his    library.     The   solitude   of  Meiningen   op- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  357 

pressed  him ;  but  liis  fii-st  removal  was  only  to  Coburg, 
a  short  distance  from  tlie  Prince,  and  a  stage  nearer  to  the 
attraction  of  the  mountain  magnet  and  the  friend  Otto. 

The  year  that  Kichter  dwelt  in  Coburg  has  been  passed 
over  in  silence  by  his  biographers.  No  reason  has  been 
given  why  he  selected  this  small  city,  and  tliere  appears 
to  have  been  no  person  there  who  could  lend  attraction  to 
such  a  residence.  But  it  was  marked  by  two  events  that 
aftected  him  deeply,  —  the  birth  of  his  son  and  the  death 
of  his  friend  Herder. 

This  last,  the  death  of  Herder,  cast  a  deep  shadow  that 
reached  him  and  his  domestic  joys.  He  had  loved  and 
reverenced  none  like  Herder,  and  no  author  had  had  so 
much  influence  over  him.  Not  that  they  resembled  each 
other  as  authors,  but  the  same  deeply  religious  spii'it  in- 
spired them  both,  and  the  aim  of  both  was  to  buUd  up 
the  wavering  faith  of  the  age  in  God,  virtue,  and  immor- 
tality. 

"  I  would  willingly,"  he  wrote  to  the  son  of  his  dead 
friend,  —  "I  would  willingly  journey  to  his  holy  sepulchre 
to  renew  my  joyful  and  my  sad  recollections  of  him.  But 
with  what  could  I  still  my  grief  when  I  found  him  no 
longer  there  ?  Weimar,  or  rather  Ids  deserted  house,  has 
made  me  a  Jew,  who  can  remain  no  longer  in  the  city, 
but  must,  as  soon  as  he  inscribed  in  the  church-record 
the  birth  of  a  child,  depart  and  journey  onward."  * 

"  What  shall  I  say  to  you,"  he  wrote  to  Caroline  Her- 
der, "  wliile  you  suffer  so  much  from  the  soitow  of  others, 
and,  like  the  widow  of  a  prince,  must  at  the  same  time 
mourn  for  the  country  and  for  yourself.  I  would  that  I 
could  go  to  you  and  sit  with  you  unconsoled  for  half  an 
hour,  and  then  silently  withdraw. 

*  See  Appendix  IFI. 


358  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  We  are  indeed  only  mourning  for  ourselves,  for  his 
pure  spirit  deserves  the  purer  world.  He  was  so  God- 
like that  1  can  think  of  him  unaltered  in  his  own  place  in 
that  holy,  distant  world,  with  that  exalted  spiritual  wliich 
is,  if  God  is  !  If  his  illumined  countenance  is  now  turned 
towards  this  earth,  nothing  will  appear  there  but  the 
thought,  — '  You  have  loved  me  and  blessed  me,  and  the 
Eternal  will  give  you  through  your  children  your  joy 
and  your  reward ! ' 

"  For  me  is  Weimar  now  also  bui'ied. 

"J.  P.  F.  R." 

The  residence  in  Coburg  was  also  marked  by  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Flegeljahre.  Carlyle  says  the  word  may 
be  translated  " wild  oats"  but  it  seems  to  mean  the  same 
as  Wanderjahre,  or  apprenticeship,  as  Goethe  uses  it  in 
Meister. 

Like  most  of  the  romances  of  Jean  Paul,  especially  to 
the  English  reader,  the  beginning  of  this  work  will  be 
strange,  puzzling,  and  apparently  absurd,  and  he  will  be 
tempted  a  hundred  times  to  throw  down  the  book  in 
despair  or  contempt ;  but  he  will  be  well  rewarded  for 
persevering  till  he  finds  his  way  througli  the  intricate 
labyrinth  of  the  introduction.  Paul  wrote  to  Otto  while 
he  was  writing  it,  "  I  work  now  witli  inexpressible  pleas- 
ure and  care  upon  the  history  of  my  brothers,  —  of  J.  P. 
In  this  I  can  make  the  highest  satirical  leaps,  and  its 
objectivity  gains  by  them," 

It  is  said  to  be  the  most  personal  of  all  the  autlior's 
works.  In  it  he  has  represented  his'own  already  so  often 
mentioned  double  nature,  in  the  personal  i-elations  of  Walt 
and  Vult,  twin  brothers,  nourished  by  the  same  mother's 
bosom,  and  "  united  -in  such  a  manner  that  they  cannot 
live  apart,  and  yet  cannot  look  into  each  other's  eyes,  or 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  359 

embrace  eacli  other.  They  are  opposite  magnets  that  are 
continually  drawn  to  each  other,  but  meeting,  are  thrust 
asunder  as  by  positive  and  negative  electricity."  "Walt, 
tlie  earnest,  sentimental,  ideal  enthusiast,  is  represented 
as  anticipating  a  paradise  in  every-day  life,  surrounding 
the  simplest  scenes  in  nature,  and  the  most  common 
people,  with  a  halo  of  poetic  glory  ;  from  his  simple  and 
absent  nature  knowing  nothing,  and  believing  nothing,  of 
craft  or  cunning  or  vice ;  extracting  dehght  from  every 
flower,  even  from  every  weed  in  his  path,  —  is  twin- 
brother  to  Vult,  an  eccentric  humorist,  a  musician,  ven- 
triloquist, an  exquisite  mimic,  who  can  take  all  forms, 
and  in  the  inequalities  of  life  looks  with  penetrating  eyes 
only  on  the  meanest  side  ;  knowing  too  well,  and  despis- 
ing the  vices  of  hypocrisy,  he  dissects  and  tears  to  shreds 
every  tender  emotion,  delighting  only  in  the  wildest  sport, 
and  allaying  the  thirsting  emptiness  of  the  heart  with 
satire,  wit,  and  humor.  Each  seeks  to  gain  an  ascendency 
over  the  other,  —  Walt,  by  the  seducing  and  vanquishing 
power  of  pure,  disinterested  love  ;  Vult,  by  the  imposing 
ascendency  of  knowledge  of  society  and  extensive  worldly 
experience. 

The  interest  of  the  book  consists,  first,  in  the  psycho- 
logical relation  of  the  twins  to  each  other  ;  second,  in  the 
severe  experience  of  life  to  which  the  angelic  and  poetic 
nature  of  Walt  is  subjected  ;  and,  third,  the  resemblance 
of  the  two  united  brotiiers  to  the  double  nature  of  the 
author.  Both  born  in  humble  life,  the  good-for-nothing 
Vult  is  soon  enlisted  as  a  soldier, — Walt,  whose  disposi- 
tion leads  him  to  the  clerical  life,  is  deterred  from  enter- 
ing the  Church  by  the  tears  of  his  mother,  wlio  dreads 
for  her  son  the  poverty  in  which  her  own  life  has  been 
passed.  His  father,  who  answers  to  our  justice  of  the 
peace,  educates  him  for  a  notary. 


360  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

A  rich  and  childless  man,  the  Croesus  of  the  village, 
has  become  interested  in  Walt,  by  reading  a  poem  of  his, 
in  which  he  describes  the  liappiiie^s  of  a  Swedish  Pastor's 
life,  and  determmes  to  put  it  in  his  power  to  follow  his 
inclinations  by  making  him  his  heir.  Yet  he  hedges 
around  his  legacy  with  such  conditions,  and  places  the 
heir  in  such  intricate  relations  with  avaricious  and  cun- 
ning executors,  that  the  reader  foresees  that  the  noble- 
minded  and  unsuspicious  Walt,  through  the  dreaming  and 
unworldly  nature  of  the  poet,  will  surrender  the  whole 
gift  into  their  hands.  By  the  conditions  of  the  will  he  is 
placed  in  various  relations  with  the  persons  into  whose 
hands,  for  every  fault  he  commits,  he  forfeits  a  part  of 
the  inheritance.  His  experienced  and  worldly-wise  twin 
brother  Vult  follows  him  as  his  sha<low,  and  endeavors  to 
protect  him,  by  his  better  knowledge  and  cold  experience 
of  the  world,  from  the  blunders  of  his  unsus])icious  nature; 
but,  by  a  kind  of  poetic  optimism,  Walt  converts  every 
loss  into  a  lesson  of  wisdom,  or  into  an  occasion  for  dis- 
closing his  own  unselfish  and  beautiful  nature. 

Unknown  to  each  other,  and  without  disclosing  it,  they 
bntb  love  the  same  excellence  in  the  beautifully  feminine, 
but  higli-boi-n  Wina.  Although  the  helpless  Walt,  tbrough 
his  earnest  nature  and  poetical  character,  touches  her 
beart,  yet,  without  the  knowledge  of  life  and  sagacity  of 
bis  brother,  he  could  never  have  breatbcd  his  reverential 
love  into  her  ear.  Wina  is  for  Walt  a  distant  star,  which 
he  may  love  and  worship,  but  never  reach.  It  would 
have  been  as  improbable  as  that  Jean  Paul  should  him- 
self marry  a  pi'incess.  And  the  reason  that  the  book 
breaks  off  so  abrui)tly  is,  no  doubt,  that  it  would  have 
violated  all  probability  and  all  German  conventionalism 
to  have  brought  Walt's  love  for  Wina  to  a  happy  termi- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  36 1 

nation  ;  and  yet  a  poet  could  be  permitted  to  love  noth- 
ing inferior. 

This  was  the  first  work  that  Jean  Paul  began  and 
finished  immediately  after  his  marriage,  when  he  had 
obtained  the  object  of  his  lifelong  desires  ;  and  over  the 
whole  work  is  thrown  the  charm  of  a  serene  and  heavenly 
twilight,  a  soothing  repose,  like  the  disposition  in  which 
it  was  written.  The  FlegeJjahre  is  the  truest  expression 
of  the  inmost  nature  of  the  poet,  —  the  picture  of  his 
hopes,  his  longings,  his  griefs,  his  disappointments  ;  and  it 
contains  his  views  upon  the  value  of  his  own  attainments, 
and  shows  their' discrepancy  with  the  actual  world  in 
which  he  moved  and  hved. 

By  a  German  critic  it  is  said,  "It  leaves  upon  the 
mind  of  the  reader  the  impression  that  it  is  the  most  ar- 
tistically faultless,  the  gentlest,  and  most  beautiful  of  the 
peculiar  romances  of  Jean  Paul."  For  many  long  years 
Paul  cherished  the  illusion  that  he  should  continue  and 
complete  this  the  most  faultless  of  his  works. 

This  seems  to  be  the  proper  place  to  introduce  a  little 
sketch  of  the  social  group  in  the  midst  of  which  Richter 
passed  his  life  after  his  removal  to  the  little  city  of  Bay- 
reuth, — "little  city  of  my  habitation,  which  I  belong  to  on 
this  side  the  grave  ! "  —  at  the  foot  of  the  Fichtelgebirge 
on  the  south,  which  took  place  this  year.  The  reader 
will  recollect,  perhaps,  the  introductory  sketch  of  the  sim- 
plicity of  mannei'S  in  this  secluded  region.  Modern  im- 
provement and  refinement  must  have  been  increased  by 
Emanuel  the  Jew,  who  was  cultivated  and  beneficent,  a 
patron  of  the  arts,  and  who  lived  there  in  a  style  of  the 
most  generous  hospitality. 

In  the  Otto  family,  originally  from  Hof,  marriage  had 
made   many   changes.     Frederica,    Richter's   pupil    and 

16 


362  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

friend,  bad  married  "Wernlien,  the  pastor  of  Wunsiedel. 
Frederica  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  women  with- 
out fascinating  quabties,  but  to  whom  every  one  turns  and 
rebes  upon  in  times  of  difficulty  and  sorrow.  After  her 
marriage,  Otto  wrote  to  Richter  thus  :  "  Frederica  writes 
that  she  is  very  much  satisfied,  and  bves  very  happily 
with  Wernlien.  She  has  taken  the  reins  of  housekeeping 
completely  into  her  own  bands.  All  is  furnished  and 
ordered  after  her  views,  and  she  does  not  let  the  remarks 
of  others  make  her  waver.  I  rejoice  that  she  has  begun 
in  this  way,  because  the  disagreeables  of  her  situation  will 
be  softened  thus,  if  not  destroyed,  and  this  firmness  of 
hers  is  the  only  way." 

Of  Otto's  own  maiTiage  he  gives  Richter  the  following 
simple  and  naive  account.  He  had  long  been  betrothed, 
which  in  Germany  is  tiie  more  public  marriage,  to  Amone 
Herold,  whose  home  is  often  mentioned  as  uncomfortable 
and  uncongenial,  and  to  whom  Richter,  in  a  delicate  man- 
ner, had  frequently  conveyed  advice  and  consolation. 

"  The  last  day  of  June  was  my  marriage-day  ;  no  one 
had  been  informed  that  it  was  to  take  place.  At  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning  we  went  alone,  as  we  wished,  into 
the  church.  We  were,  believe  me,  through  our  own  re- 
flections, more  elevated  than  we  were  by  the  mechanical 
exhortations  of  old  R.  I  took  in  imagination  thee  with 
us,  even  into  the  sacristy,  where  I  and  my  Amone  were 
wed,  and  thou,  my  Richter,  stood  by,  and  gave  us  thy 
blessing.  Then  I  led  Amone  back  to  her  father  for  the 
last  time,  and  the  next  morning  took  her  away  forever. 
We  departed  from  Hof  I  left  my  brother  sleeping. 
We  came  to  Bayrcuth,  where  I  intended  to  hire  a  dwell- 
ing. But  Emanuel  had  cared  for  all  that,  and  had  fur- 
nished  it  with  a  completeness  that   extended   from  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  363 

greatest  to  the  smallest  things.  In  addition  to  what 
Amone  had  sent  here,  he  had  provided  everything  ne- 
cessary or  agreeable. 

"  Represent  to  yourself  our  surprise,  when  we  stept 
into  the  apartment,  and  found  all,  even  to  the  ink-glass 
and  strewing  sand ;  candles  lighted  upon  my  desk,  and  a 
barometer  near  them.  All,  —  from  the  window-curtains 
to  the  electrical  machine  for  lighting  the  fire,  —  from  the 
smallest  milk-pitcher  to  the  largest  kettle,  —  all  arranged, 
everything  in  its  place,  or  hanging  on  its  nail." 

Albrecht,  Otto's  brother,  a  noble  and  generous  charac- 
ter, who  is  called  the  old  bachelor,  and  whom  they  regret 
leaving  alone  when  Otto  marries,  saves  them  all  anxiety 
on  his  account  by  becoming  suddenly  attached  to  a  young 
lady,  and  marrying  in  a  hurry,  as  old  bachelors  are  too 
apt  to  do. 

It  was  to  this  little  circle  of  attached  friends,  living  in 
great  outward  simplicity,  that  Richter  brought  his  Caro- 
line, rich  in  every  inward  and  outward  quality  that  could 
add  to  it  grace  or  happiness. 

To  show  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  their  life,  I  give 
an  extract  from  Otto,  describing  his  own  birthday.  He 
says:  — 

''  It  is  the  first  in  domestic  life  with  my  Amone,  and 
therefoi-e  doubly  dear.  Truly,  it  is  something  beautiful 
to  observe  the  anxious  care  and  contrivance  of  a  Haus- 
frau  to  create  some  new  pleasure,  to  see  how  in  secret 
all  is  directed  to  one  object,  to  create  a  happy  surprise 
for  her  husband. 

"  As  I  arose  on  the  9  th,  and  went  into  my  ow^n  room, 
Amone  came  to  meet  me,  with  the  most  tender  love, 
embraced  me,  and  led  me  into  the  common  apartment  to 
see  what  she  had  prepared  for  me.    There,  under  wreatlis 


364  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

of  flowers  and  kindled  lights,  were  a  large  cake  that  she 
had  herself  made  the  day  before  ;  pastry  and  wine  that 
her  sister  had  sent  me  from  Hof.  All  were  symmetri- 
cally placed  and  beautiful ;  and  on  each  side  there  lay 
shirts  of  fine  holland,  that  she  had  been  months  before 
secretly  employed  in  making,  to  surprise  me.  The  love 
of  this  good,  devoted  being  touched  me  even  to  tears. 

"  The  pleasure  and  emotion  of  the  day  were  much 
heightened  by  the  good  Emanuel,  who  always  gives  me 
proofs  of  his  esteem  and  love.  In  the  afternoon,  we  took 
a  long  walk,  and  then  we  all  assembled  around  his  cheer- 
ful tea-table.  I  thought  of  you  the  whole  day,  my  Rich- 
ter,  and  painted  to  myself  your  future  birthdays  that  you 
would,  perhaps,  pass  with  us,  when  we  should  all  live 
together  in  domestic  intimacy.* 

A  letter  follows  from  Richter  to  his  wife,  on  her  first 
birthday  after  their  maiTiage. 

"  Even  now,  as  I  would  begin,  tones  from  the  ^olian 
harp  come  to  my  ear,  as  though  they  would  say  what  I 
should  write  to  thee,  my  beloved !  New  born,  for  that 
veiled  year,  which  no  winter,  but  spring  clouds  only  con- 
ceal, thy  birthday  is  also  mine,  and  with  wishes  for  thee, 
my  own  will  be  fulfilled.  Led  by  quiet  joys  among 
flowers  and  sunbeams  and  pure  loving  hearts,  shall  thou 
pass,  dear  one,  into  thy  new  year.     O  nothing  shall  fail 

*  Amone  Herold  was  one  of  Paul's  earliest  pupils  and  most  constant 
correspondents.  As  her  marriage  was  childless,  she  gave  much  of  her 
time  to  literary  pursuits.  Her  first  publication  was  a  translation  of 
Ossian.  She  afterwards  published  some  novels,  that  her  friend  Paul 
revised.  Otto  often  speaks  of  her  philosophical  mind;  and  her  writ- 
ings could  not  have  been  without  value,  as  Cotta  gave  her  two  louis 
d'ors  (nearly  ten  dollars)  a  sheet  for  her  stories.  Schindel  says,  "  She 
excels  in  descriptions  of  scenes  of  domestic  tenderness,  and  is  distin- 
guished for  penetration  and  power  of  acute  observation."  Amone  was 
yet  living  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  Jean  Paul's  life. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  ^6^ 

thee  therein  !  But  should  all  else  fail,  I  will  remain  to 
thee  fast  and  true ;  and  when  thy  future  years  are  past, 
thou  shalt  say  to  me :  '  You  have  foithfully  kept  the  vows 
of  love !  You  have  warmly  loved  me !  We  have  been 
happy ! ' 

"  I  will  be  to  thee  father  and  mother !  Thou  shalt  be 
the  happiest  of  human  beings,  that  I  also  may  be  happy ! 
And  thus  may  it  be  forever ;  and  may  the  Infinite  Hand 
behind  the  clouds,  that  led  us  together,  lay  its  blessing 
upon  our  union,  and  give  us  only  the  sorrows  that  we 
can  bear ! " 

A  letter  or  two  written  from  Coburg  may  close  this 
part  of  our  biogi-aphy. 

"  January  28,  1803. 

"  K  thy  watch-key  left  upon  thy  table  did  not  remind 
me,  I  would  not  write  to  thee,  beloved !  Our  separation 
is  yet  too  short,  —  only  three  half-hours  from  me,  what 
then  can  have  happened?  I  sat  too  long  in  thy  chair 
with  Emma  before  me  on  the  gray  cushion,  so  that  she 
made  me,  through-  her  smiles,  happily  unhappy.  She  is 
so  like  thee,  with  her  open-mouthed  smiles,  that  if  thou 
shouldst  ever  leave  me  her  resemblance  to  thee  will  be 
the  Heaven  and  the  Hell  of  my  life,  if  indeed  I  could 
survive  thee  !    Yet  why  do  I  torment  thee  and  myself? 

"  Beloved,  farewell !  Write  to  me,  not  alone  from  Wei- 
mar, and  write  often.     God  keep  thee,  Angel ! 

"  Tliine, 

"  C." 

Three  days  after  Richter  wrote  to  his  wife  from  Wei- 
mar :  — 

"  Dearest !  again  I  write  to  thee,  here  in  the  good 
Kuhnhold  apartment  with  her  and  her  husband  exactly 


366 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


as  we  were,  in  the  former  year.  The  Herders  were  in- 
finitely glad  to  see  me  starting  like  a  snow-ball  out  of  the 
snow.  Here  ai"e  feast  after  feast,  yet  their  beer  does  not 
compensate  me  for  my  own.  Then  I  long  so  much  for 
thee  that  it  may  well  be  that  I  shall  not  go  to  Rudol^tadt, 
but  Sunday  or  Monday  meet  thee  again.  Good-night, 
dearest ! 


PART    IV. 


CHAPTER    I. 

RiCHTER  KEMOVES  TO  BaYREUTH.  —  SOCIAL  POSITION.  —  PERSONAL 

Appearance    and    Habits.  —  Family.  —  Letter    from    his 
Eldest  Daughter. 


O  return :  the  poet's  life  in  Coburg,  a.  d.  1804 

as  we  have  ah'eady  said,  is  a  com-  ^'-  *i- 

[k^^||  pie  to  blank  leaf  in   his   biography.  It  was 

-^^1  easy,  therefore,  —  although  he    says  to  Otto, 


says 

"  It  is  stupid  to  wander  about  with  wife  and  children 
and  cook,"  —  yet  it  was  natural  to  turn  his  eyes  to  the 
place  that  had  always  been  the  Mecca  of  his  wishes.  On 
the  1st  of  August,  1805,  the  day,  Paul  said,  ''on  Avhich, 
according  to  the  old  Saga,  the  Devil  fell  from  heaven,  he 
should  return  to  his  upon  earth." 

He  soon  found  a  quiet  little  place  in  Bayreuth,  where 
the  green  meadows,  and  the  sheltered  valleys,  and  the 
misty  mountains  of  his  fancy,  became  fixed  and  perma- 
nent objects  in  his  view. 

In  close  neighborhood  with  Otto  and  Amone,  and  his 
old  friend  Emanuel,  he  hired  a  convenient  and  pretty 
house,  consisting  of  four  rooms  and  three  cabinets,  on  the 
beautiful  margin  of  the  Main,  and  commanding  an   ex- 


368  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL, 

tensive  prospect  of  the  region  he  loved  so  well.  Here 
he  lived  in  the  most  endearing  social  intercourse  with 
these  friends,  which  was  uninterrupted  until  the  day  of 
his  death. 

But  to  Jean  Paul  a  place  under  the  free  and,  open 
heaven  to  study  and  muse  was  almost  as  necessary  as  a 
shelter  for  his  wife  and  children ;  and  he  was  often  seen, 
in  a  fine  morning,  with  a  sack  of  books  upon  his  back,  a 
knotted  staff  in  his  hand,  followed  by  his  faithful  Spitz, 
passing  through  the  Linden  avenue  that  led  to  a  hermit- 
age, far  out  of  the  city ;  where  there  was  an  extensive 
view  over  the  valley  to  the  Fichtelgebirge.  Here  was  a 
small  peasant's  house,  in  whose  upper  chamber  Richter 
had  furnished  a  study  for  inclement  weather.  And  the 
good  Frau  still  shows  the  room  whei'e  Richter  came  till 
the  last  year  of  his  life,  and  endeared  himself  to  her  by 
good  humor  and  kindness. 

On  fine  days  the  poet  might  be  seen  sitting  not  far 
from  the  house,  under  the  overhanging  linden,  sunk  in 
his  own,  or  regarding  the  outward  world,  until  the  dark- 
ening twilight,  or  his  children,  sent  l)y  the  watchful  Caro- 
line, reminded  him  that  it  was  time  to  call  his  friend 
Otto,  who  was  within  the  sound  of  his  voice,  and  return 
home. 

With  his  settlement  in  Bayreuth,  the  completion  of 
Titan,  and  the  publication  of  the  FlegeJjahre,  began  a 
new  existence  in  the  literary,  the  ideal,  and  the  actual 
life  of  Richter.  He  now  stood,  in  the  full  npeness  of  his 
age,  with  an  entire  knowledge,  and  complete  conscious- 
ness of  his  relations  to  society ;  and  with  a  rich  treasure 
of  experience,  both  in  life  and  in  literature.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  all  his  upward  strivings,  both  in  poetry  and 
life,  lay  behind  him.     He  had  obtained,  both  in  domestic 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  369 

life  and  in  fame,  all  that  he  had  aspired  to.  The  ideal 
in  these  paths  no  longer  beckoned  him  onwards.  He  had 
found  in  his  Caroline,  if  not  all  a  poet  could  imagine, 
enough  to  make  a  poet's  fireside  happj ;  and  as  a  father 
and  a  member  of  society  he  had  acquired  an  easy  and 
honorable  position,  that  would  ever  bind  him  in  silken 
fetters  to  his  home,  and  to  the  beloved  soil  of  his  native 
district.  The  calm  satisfaction  and  contentment,  the  har- 
monious quiet,  the  repose  and  order  of  his  life,  also  a[)pear 
in  all  the  works  composed  after  the  Titan. 

Those  who  have  followed  us  thus  far  will  dwell  with 
satisfaction  on  this  period  of  Richter's  life,  "  when,  with  a 
heart  at  once  of  the  most  sportful  and  the  most  earnest 
feelings ;  affectionate,  and  encompassed  with  the  objects 
of  his  affections,  diligent  in  the  highest  of  all  earthly 
tasks,  the  acquisition  and  diffusion  of  truth  ;  and  witness- 
ing from  his  sequestered  home  the  workings  of  his  own 
mind  on  thousands  of  fellow-minds,  he  was  happy  and 
at  peace." 

In  his  own  immediate  circle  also  the  influence  of  so 
original  a  mind,  and  a  heart  the  truest  and  tenderest  that 
ever  beat,  upon  his  children  and  neighborhood,  must  have 
been  deep  and  permanent.  He  was  an  enthusiast,  but 
no  visionary  ;  neither  were  his  singularities  the  result  of 
affectation,  as  writers  in  this  country  and  in  England 
have  asserted ;  for  affectation  is  founded  in  falsehood,  and 
Richter  was  the  truest  of  human  beings.  The  poetry  of 
his  genius  had  always  been  reflected  in  his  life  ;  peace 
and  happiness  from  within  now  showed  itself  in  his  ex- 
ternal appearance.  One  of  his  biographers  says :  "■  He 
had  hitherto  been  pale  and  lean ;  he  now  became  stout 
and  robust ;  and,  had  it  not  been  that  the  delicately 
formed   nose,  the   lovely  mouth,  the   intellectual   brow, 

16*  X 


370  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

and  lightning  eye  remained  unchanged,  he  would  have 
been  taken  for  a  farmer  rather  that  a  poet." 

But  I  must  not  give  the  reader  the  impression  that 
Richter  was  absolutely  without  faults.  He  had  perse- 
vered from  the  earliest  time  in  the  habit  of  writing  down 
rules  for  conduct,  and  strictly  regulating  his  whole'»man- 
ner  of  life;  from  this  we. learn  his  inclinations,  his  seci'et 
disgusts,  and  the  faults  he  was  most  conscious  of  Every 
line  shows  him  full  of  love  and  generosity  in  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life  ;  but  with  his  glowing  fancy  and  temperament 
of  fire,  he  was  sometimes  harsh  and  violent,  especially 
after  long-continued  writing,  that  brought  him  into  an 
excited  state  of  mind,  differing  from  intoxication  only  in 
its  cause.  Against  this  he  contended  strongly ;  and  his 
most  troubled  and  penitent  hours  appear  to  have  been 
caused  by  the  transgression  of  his  resolutions  on  those 
occasions  when  he  forgot  the  habitual  mildness  of  his 
character.  He  mourned  also  over  his  violence  in  argu- 
ment ;  and  there  are  many  little  billets  apologizing  to  his 
friends  the  next  day  for  the  warmth  of  his  opinions  the 
previous  evening.  Paul  loved  argument,  and  was  noted 
for  maintaining  his  opinions  with  great  warmth  ;  he  was 
also  extremely  unguarded  and  imprudent.  The  breach 
between  him  and  the  Schlegel  school  Avas  often  widened 
by  unguarded  speeches,  that  were  cauglit  up  and  repeated 
by  curious  or  malicious  listeners.  In  reference  to  this 
Paul  says  in  his  via  recta :  "  Jf  07ie  effort  at  reconcilia- 
tion does  not  succeed,  the  second  or  the  third  will  be 
certain  to." 

His  biographer,  a  nephew,  who  lived  much  in  his 
family,  writes  thus  of  it.  After  saying  that  he  had 
been  educated  with  the  utmost  reverence  and  even  fear 
of  Richter ;  that  reports  had  reached  him  of  his  oddity 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  371 

and  severity,  so  that  he  remained  a  whole  day  in  Bay- 
reutli,  and  passed  his  house  several  times  before  he  could 
get  couraj^e  to  knock  at  the  door  :  — 

"  As  soon  as  I  entered,  all  my  timidity  vanished.  Rich- 
ter,  indeed,  appeared  but  for  a  moment,  to  welcome  me, 
and  returned  to  his  study.  But  the  mild  splendor  of  his 
whole  godlike,  spiritual,  and  moral  being  appeared  as 
shown  in  his  wife  and  children,  and  everything  about 
them,  and  threw  suddenly  a  warm,  rose-colored  glow 
upon  my  spirits. 

"  I  found  in  them  all  the  most  benevolent  and  heartiest 
love  united  with  the  simplicity  and  openness  of  the  truest 
innocence  ;  extraordinary  culture,  with  indeed  a  too  hum- 
ble unpretendingness ;  the  most  earnest  interest  for  all 
that  was  elevated,  with  the  most  cheerful  good-humor 
and  love  of  pleasantry  and  wit ;  a  simple  manner  of  liv- 
ing, and  ignorance  of  fashionable  luxuries,  but  the  hap- 
piest contentment,  with  the  truest  hospitality.  A  deep 
penetration  and  knowledge  of  life,  united  with  the  most 
childlike  purity  of  heart,  that  had  no  eye  for  the  low  or 
tlie  impure  ;  but  unsuspicious,  they  confided  in  the  best, 
and  received  as  they  gave,  without  distrust.  All  this 
intellect  and  love  was  clothed  in  the  unstudied  exterior 
of  a  graceful  form."  To  add  to  this  charming  picture  of 
his  family,  there  was  the  deepest  reverence  for  the  hus- 
band and  father,  with  the  freest  and  most  independent 
intercourse  with  him.  In  proof  of  this,  there  is  a  letter 
from  the  eldest  daughter,  Emelia. 

"  ....  I  love  to  represent  the  dear  friendly  man,  with 
brown  study-coat  and  socks  hanging  down,  as  he  entered 
our  mother's  chamber  the  first  thing  in  the  morning  to 
greet  her.  The  hound  springs  on  before  him,  and  the 
children  hang  about  him,  and  seek,  when  he  leaves  the 


372  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

room,  to  thrust  their  little  feet  into  the  slippers  behind, 
when  he  raises  his  feet  a  little,  so  as  to  hang  on  him  more 
securely.  One  springs  before  (at  that  time  my  departed 
brother  lived),  the  other  two  hang  on  his  coat-skirts  until 
he  reaches  his  own  chamber-door ;  where  all  leave  him, 
for  only  the  dog  must  enter  there. 

"  When  ^e  were  very  small,  we  lived  in  a  two-story 
house  ;  my  father  worked  above,  in  tlie  attic.  We  crept 
on  our  hands  and  feet  over  the  stairs,  and  hammered  on 
the  door  till  the  father  himself  arose  and  opened  it,  and, 
after  our  noisy  ingress,  closed  it  again,  —  then  he  took 
from  an  old  chest  a  trumpet  and  a  fife,  with  which  we 
made  noisy  music  wliile  he  continued  writing.  We  ven- 
tured in  again  many  times  in  the  day  to  play  with  a 
squirrel  that  he  had  at  that  time,  and  that  in  the  even- 
ing he  took  out  with  him  in  his  pocket  to  the  Harmony, 
and  it  always  made  one  of  the  family  circle. 

"  He  had,  usually,  animals  that  he  tamed  about  him. 
Sometimes  a  mouse :  then  a  great  garden-spider,  that  he 
kept  in  a  paper  box  with  a  glass  top.  There  was  a  little 
door  beneath,  by  which  he  could  feed  his  prisoner  with 
dead  flies.  In  the  autumn  he  collected  the  winter  food 
for  his  little  tree-frog  and  his  tame  spider. 

"  The  father  was  good  to  everything :  he  could  not  bear 
to  witness  the  least  pain,  not  even  in  the  lowest  animal. 
Thus,  he  never  went  out  mthout  opening  the  cage  of  his 
canary-birds,  to  indemnify  the  poor  animals,  who  would 
be  melancholy  in  his  absence.  He  took  at  one  time  the 
most  sedulous  care  of  a  dog,  who  came  in  one  evening 
after  tlie  loss  of  the  poor  dead  Alert,  as  he  knew  that  in 
the  morning  he  should  exchange  him  for  another,  and  he 
would  have  no  opportunity  to  feed  him  again.  You  will 
smile  at  the  connection,  but  he  did  the  same  for  a  depart- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  373 

ing  servant-maid :  providing  everything  for  her  conven- 
ience the  day  before,  and  delighting  the  poor  good-for- 
nothing  girl  in  the  most  unusual  degree. 

"  The  children  were  permitted  all  sorts  of  practical 
jokes  towards  him.  '  Father,  dance  once,'  then  he  would 
make  some  leaps ;  or  he  must  speak  French,  in  which  he 
placed  wonderful  value  on  the  nasal  sound,  which  no  one 
made  as  well  as  he.  It  sounded  indeed  curiously,  and 
made  my  mother  laugh. 

"  In  the  twilight  he  told  us  stories  ;  or  spake  of  God, 
and  other  worlds  ;  or  he  would  tell  us  of  our  grandfather, 
and  other  splendid  things.  We  ran  to  gain  the  wager, 
"which  of  us  should  get  nearest  to  him  on  the  sofa.  The 
old  money-box,  hooped  with  iron,  with  a  hole  in  the  cover, 
that  two  mice  might  conveniently  pass  through,  was  the 
stepping-stone  by  which  we  jumped  over  the  back  of  the 
sofa ;  for  in  front  it  was  difficult  to  press  between  the 
table  and  the  repertory  for  papers.  We  all  three  crowd- 
ed between  the  back  of  the  sofa  and  the  father's  out- 
stretched legs ;  above,  at  his  head,  lay  the  sleeping  dog. 
At  last,  when  we  had  pressed  our  limbs  into  the  most 
inconvenient  postures,  the  story  began. 

"  The  father  knew  how  to  create  for  himself  many 
little  pleasures.  Thus,  he  made  all  the  boxes  for  his 
tame  animals,  after  his  half-hour's  nap  in  the  afternoon. 
It  was  a  special  satisfaction  to  him  to  prepare  ink,  which 
he  did  much  oftener  than  was  necessary,  for  Otto  wrote 
long  years  after  with  the  rejected  part.  He  could  never 
wait  to  perfect  it ;  but  tried  it  an  hour  after  it  was  made. 
If  it  was  already  black,  he  would  come  joyfully  to  us  and 
say,  '  Now  if  it  is  black  already,  what  will  it  be  to-mor- 
row or  after  fourteen  days  ?'.... 

"  The  mere  thought  of  destruction  was  painful  to  him, 


374  LIFE     OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

especially  the  loss  of  the  woi-k  of  man's  mind.  He  never 
burnt  a  letter  ;  yes,  he  treasured  even  the  most  insignifi- 
cant. '  All  loss  of  life,'  he  said,  '  may  be  restored  again, 
but  the  creations  of  these  heads,  these  hearts,  never ! 
The  name  should  be  erased,  but  the  soul  tliat  speaks 
its  most  intimate  sentiments  in  letters,  should  live?'  He 
had  also  thick  books  written  full  of  the  remarks  and  the 
habits  and  peculiarities  of  his  children.  He  rose  often 
from  his  work  and  looked  round  to  see  how  it  was  with 
us,  but  any  inteiTuption  from  without  was  very  displeas- 
ing. He  was  very  unwilling  to  receive  visits  in  the 
moi'ning  houi's. 

"  At  meals  he  was  very  cheerful,  and  listened  to  every- 
thing we  told  him  with  the  greatest  sympathy,  and  always 
made  something  out  of  the  smallest  relation ;  so  that  the 
narrator  was  always  wiser  for  what  he  liad  said. 

"  In  eating  and  drinking  he  was  extremely  moderate. 
He  never  gave  us  direct  instruction,  and  yet  he  taught 
us  always.  Our  evening  table  he  called  a  French  table 
d'hote,  that  he  furnished  with  twelve  dishes  taken  from 
the  arts  and  sciences.  We  tasted  of  all  without  being 
satiated  with  any,  and  we  all  ventured  to  utter  any  joke 
to  the  father  about  himself  or  his  entertainment. 

"  His  punishments  for  us  girls  were  rather  passive  than 
active  ;  they  consisted  in  refusing  some  request,  or  in  a 
severe  word ;  but  my  brother  sometimes  received  corporal 
punishment.  My  father  would  say,  *  Max,  this  afternoon, 
at  three  o'clock,  come  to  me  to  receive  your  whipping.' 
He  went  punctually,  and  suffered  it  without  a  sound. 

"  Our  principal  festival  was  Christmas,  and  our  fatlier 
l)egan  early  to  look  after  the  sacred  appearance  of  the 
present-giving  Ghristkindlein.  Fourteen  days  before  he 
would  suffer  some  little  light  to  creep  through.     If  we 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  375 

had  been  very  good  in  the  day,  when  he  came  home  in 
the  evening  from  the  Harmony,  he  would  bring  us  some 
little  present,  and  say,  '  To-day,  good  children,  I  went 
into  the  garden  of  the  Harmony,  and  as  I  looked  toward 
heaven  there  came  a  rose-red  cloud  before  me,  and  there 
sat  the  Christhindlein  ;  and  as  you  have  been  good  to-day, 
he  sent  you  this.'  *  Christmas  week  he  went  himself  to 
the  fair,  and  when  we  saw  him  coming  back,  and  the 
angles  and  protuberances  of  his  cloak  betraying  what  he 
wished  to  conceal  in  its  folds,  we  ran  down  the  steps  and 
would  try  to  hang  on  him.  Then  he  would  cry  out,  art- 
fully feigning  anger,  '  Touch  me  at  your  peril ! ' 

"  When  the  evening  came,  as  soon  as  it  was  twilight, 
we  must  all  withdraw,  my  mother  and  all.  He  arranged 
everything  himself;  and  when  the  tree  was  lighted  we 
were  recalled,  and  then  we  could  not  be  gay  enough  to 
satisfy  him.  He  wished  to  educate  us  with  the  frugality 
with  which  fate  reconciled  him  in  his  childhood.  Thus 
he  never  gave  us  pocket-money  ;  but  on  the  three  domes- 
tic fair-days  in  Bayreuth  he  gave  each  of  us  three  kreut- 
zers ;  f  later  it  rose  to  six,  and  a  short  time  before  my 
fii-st  communion  I  received  a  four-and-twenty  kreutzer- 
piece. 

"  Last  year  I  and  my  sister  received  a  dollar ;  but  it 
might  as  well  have  been  thrown  away.  I  learnt  with 
great  difficulty  the  use  of  money  ;  and  if,  as  I  know  not 
who  asserts,  a  thousand  angels  can  sit  on  the  point  of  a 
needle,  so  we  founded  a  thousand  plans  upon  our  dollar. 
But  they,  with  it,  vanished  in  the  air. 

'■'■  I  will  relate  only  two  little  things  more.     First,  how 

*  The  reader  will  recollect  how  dear  this  illusion  of  German  chil- 
dren was  to  Jean  Paul,  in  his  own  childhood.  —  Tr. 
t  A  kreutzer  is  about  a  penny,  or  one  cent  and  a  half. 


376  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

my  father  assisted  the  poor  gardeners,  who  belonged  to 
the  garden  of  the  Harmony,  where  he  wrote.  He  always 
gave  them  five  guilders  *  at  once,  from  which  the  Frau 
must  bring  one  back  at  the  end  of  the  month  to  show 
him ;  to  this  he  would  add  a  sechzer  (six  kreutzers)  in- 
terest, as  he  called  it. 

"  Once  more,  —  will  it  weary  you  if  I  relate,  that  he 
kept  an  empty  toilet-box,  in  Avhich  there  were  little  holes 
for  penny  and  twopenny  pieces,  and  that,  like  Swift,  when 
he  went  to  walk,  he  carried  these  small  pieces  in  the  left 
waistcoat  pocket,  to  give  to  the  poor  people  ?  " 

*  A  gilder,  or  florin,  is  about  forty  cents.  The  value  of  these  coins 
is  nominah     They  vary  greatly  in  the  different  states  of  Germany. 


CHAPTER    II. 


'  Introduction  to  Esthetics."  —  "  Freedom  Pamphlet."  —  "  Le- 
VAN.\."  —  Richter's  View  of  Napoleon.  —  Comic  Works.  — 
Letter  to  General  Bernadotte. 


HE  Introduction  to  Esthetics  was  ^  p  jgo5 
the  first  book  published  after  the  ^t.  42. 
Flegeljahre.  This  is  apparently  a  scientifi- 
cally critical  work,  but  is  not  free  from  the 
personality  that  characterizes  all  the  productions  of  Jean 
Paul.  It  is  only  fragmentary.  It  makes  no  pretension 
to  a  complete  theory  of  the  beautiful  in  art,  and  can 
therefore  lead  to  no  serious  errors  ;  but  it  resembles  all 
the  other  works  of  this  author,  which  receive  their  worth 
and  significance  from  one  another,  and  can  be  thoroughly 
understood  only  through  each  other  and  through  a  knowl- 
edge of  their  author  ;  thus  this  work  can  only  be  fully 
understood  through  the  peculiarities  of  the  others,  and 
they  through  this.  It  is  remarkable  as  closing  with  an 
eloquent  eulogy  of  Herder,  who  died  while  it  was  in 
preparation. 

As  it  would  exceed  the  limits  of  this  work  to  attempt 
an  analysis  of  it,  I  mention  it  only  as  the  cause  of  the 
loss  of  the  Canonicqte,  formerly  promised  to  Paul  by  the 
king  of  Prussia.  It  was  dedicated  by  permission  to  the 
Duke  Aemel  von  Gotha,  a  prince  who  had  always  shown 


378  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

a  singular  friendsliip  for  Richter,  and  delighted  in  liis 
society.  This  prince  had  raised  himself  much  above  the 
conventionalisms  of  his  own  rank,  and  in  his  letters  to 
Paul  laughed  at  the  pedantry  of  court  ceremonies.* 

In  his  dedication,  Paul  mentioned  and  praise^d  the 
hitherto  unknown  poetical  productions  of  the  Duke,  and 
the  dedication  is  accidentally  so  worded  as  if  the  Duke 
had,  although  he  had  not,  pre^aously  seen  it.  All  this 
appeared  to  the  dean  of  the  philosophical  faculty  at  Jena 
indiscreet,  and  he  refused  his  imprimatur  to  tiie  publica- 
tion. 

Richter  was  deeply  olFended  at  this  pretended  guar- 
dianship of  himself  and  his  princely  friend.  He  expe- 
rienced, for  the  first  time,  the  despotism  of  the  censure  of 
the  press  ;  he  was  frightened  at  the  desolation  it  threat- 
ened to  carry  into  the  kingdom  of  the  mind,  and  he  de- 
termined to  make  a  bold  appeal  against  this  instrument 
of  tyranny.  He  obtained  permission  of  the  Duke  to  print 
the  whole  history  of  the  affair,  together  with  all  their 
previous  correspondence  ;  the  Prince  refusing  to  soften  or 
repress  any  of  the  cynical  or  satirical  remarks  in  the 
letters  relative  to  his  own  cast. 

At  the  end  of  three  weeks  this  protest  against  the  cen- 
sure of  the  press,  together  with  the  Duke  of  Gotha's  let- 
ters, was  published  under  the  protection  of  the  noble 
prince  Dalberg,  and  under  tlie  name  of  the  Freylieitshnch- 
Jein,  —  "  Freedom's  Pamplilet."  A  step  like  this,  that  no 
other  literary  character  would  have  ventured  upon,  oould 
not  fail  to  excite  the  utmost  attention  in  Germany.  But 
the  increasing  political  storms  of  the  period,  and  the  dark- 

*  He  was  one  of  the  most  genial  and  wittiest  princes  of  the  time, 
who  raised  himself  with  wonderful  boldness  above  the  prejudices  of 
his  rank. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  379 

ening  atmosphere,  turned  all  minds  to  the  critical  situation 
of  affairs,  and  Richter  lost  all  the  gratitude  and  reward 
of  his  courageous  patriotism,  except  that  which  he  always 
carried  in  his  own  breast,  —  an  ardent  love  and  devotion 
to  freedom. 

Soon  after,  tliere  w^as  a  festival  in  Wunsiedel,  to  cele- 
brate a  visit  from  the  king  and  queen  of  Prussia,  and 
Richter,  at  the  request  of  Hardenburg,  prepared  a  mu- 
sical entertainment,  for  which  he  wi'ote  his  first  verses. 
There  were  also  present  at  this  festival  one  or  two  of  the 
sister  Graces  to  whom  he  had  dedicated  his  Titan,  and 
Richter  took  this  opportunity  to  remind  their  majesties 
of  the  promised  prebend,  and  learnt  with  astonishment 
that,  since  the  publication  of  the  Freyheitshuchlein,  the 
king  did  not  intend  to  recollect  his  promise. 

The  admirers  of  Jean  Paul  must  rejoice  that  he  was 
not  bound  to  the  suppression  of  any  opinion  by  holding 
office  under  any  prince.  He  was  completely  independent 
of  everything  but  his  conscience.  It  is  impossible  for  us 
in  this  country  to  understand  the  conventionalisms  of  so- 
ciety in  the  old,  aristocratic  countries,  or  the  wide  differ- 
ences of  rank  that  place  a  gulf  between  a  literary  man 
and  a  prince :  to  us,  the  republican  or  democratic  pride 
of  wealth,  that  enables  a  vulgar  soul  to  assume  the  atti- 
tude of  patronage  to  a  man  of  genius,  would  be  f;ir  more 
intolerable  than  the  generous  pride  of  ancestry  in  a  man 
or  of  nobilit}^  in  a  woman  ;  a  woman  who  might  also  re- 
ceive the  homage  of  a  man  of  genius  for  her  accomplished 
manners  or  her  refined  and  feminine  dignity. 

We  learn  from  the  literature  of  the  old  countries,  that 
nobility  has  always  stooped  to  cherish  genius  ;  and  has 
sometimes,  as  Leonora,  Tasso,  betrayed  it ;  and  that  in 
the  middle  ranks  of  life  there  is  an  indifference  to  talent 


380  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

without  wealth,  that  does  not  admit  it  to  such  distinction 
as  it  receives  with  us. 

The  poet  seems  to  be  "  the  aristocrat  of  the  world," 
looking  always  to  the  shining  summits  of  life  ;  but,  to  use 
Paul's  comparison,  "  needing  to  be  cherished,  like  the 
canary-bird,  with  soft,  warm  hands  before  he  can  be  made 
to  sing." 

Paul's  nephew,  speaking  of  this  subject,  says :  "  There 
was  no  German  poet  so  favored  by  the  highest  nobility, 
and  so  coldly  treated  by  the  citizens  as  Jean  Paul ;  while 
the  latter,  for  his  contests  for  tliera  in  literature  and 
politics,  not  only  gave  him  not  the  smallest  thanks,  but 
considered  themselves  injured  by  his  independence  and 
outward  contempt  of  forms  ;  and  slandered  him  as  an 
original  or  laughed  at  him  as  an  oddity  ;  the  nobility, 
especially  princes,  treated  him  with  tenderness  and  atten- 
tion. They  were  pleased  that  he  never  bowed  low  to 
them,*  and  permitted  him  all  sorts  of  freedom  in  dress, 
and  peculiar  openness  and  unreserve  in  his  conversation 
with  them.  As  he  was  infinitely  surprised  at  this  par- 
tiality for  so  democratic  a  poet,  and  sometimes  imagined 
tliat  Ihrougli  his  representations  he  had  converted  legiti- 
viacy  to  liberal  opinions,  he  therefore  talked  openly,  not 
from  social  vanity,  but  to  do  tlicm  honor,  of  his  intimate 
relations  with  exalted  men  and  women.  This  often 
brought  him  into  a  false  position  with  people  of  his  own 
rank,  and  impaired  the  influence  of  his  generous  and 
lil)eral  opinions." 

*  "  Paul  never  bent  liis  back,  but  had  a  wholly  peculiar  way  of 
bowing.  He  nodded  only  the  head;  and  this  to  the  his;hest  as  to  the 
lowest,  in  a  manner  so  noble  and  amiable,  while  he  at  the  same  time 
made  a  greeting  gesture  with  the  right  hand,  that  expressed  as  much 
respect  as  good-humor  and  friendliness." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  381 

Many  anecdotes  are  told  in  his  biography  of  Jean 
Paul's  independence  in  his  intercourse  with  the  nobility, 
—  such  as  his  presenting  himself  at  a  particular  door  of 
the  Weimar  theatre,  where  none  were  entitled  to  enter 
who  were  not  also  entitled  to  wear  a  sword.  Paul  an- 
swered, "  that  he  should  feel  himself  as  much  degraded 
by  putting  on  a  sword  as  others  were  by  having  it  taken 
off" ;  and  he  was  permitted  to  pass,  etc. 

To  return  from  this  digi'ession.  Richter,  through  his 
literary  labors,  had  hitherto  been  completely  independent. 
He  had  obtained  for  the  FlegeJjahre  that  generous  pub- 
lisher Cotta,  who  had  paid  him  seven  louis  d'ors  a  sheet ;  * 
and  the  popularity  w^iich  he  had  lost  by  the  Titan  was 
completely  regained  by  this  work.  But  at  this  time, 
when  he  possessed  more  than  ever  the  favor  of  the  pub- 
lic, the  whole  commerce  of  Germany,  through  the  wars 
of  Napoleon,  and  especially  the  book-trade,  was  thrown 
into  trouble  and  confusion  ;  this,  added  to  the  diminished 
resources  of  all  classes,  which  disinclined  them  to  the 
purchase  of  large  works,  diminished  also  the  resources  of 
our  Richter,  at  the  same  moment  that  his  family  was 
increased  by  the  birth  of  another  daughter.  His  limited 
income  was  to  be  regretted,  because  he  was  obliged,  for 
the  sake  of  providing  immediate  small  sums  for  the  sup- 
port of  his  family,  to  divide  and  weaken  his  powers,  in 
the  production  of  short  essays,  tales,  and  other  contribu- 
tions to  the  ephemeral  literature,  the  fashionable  annuals, 
and  ladies'  almanacs  of  the  period. 

*  Reckoning  a  louis  d'or  at  four  dollars,  which  is  the  nominal  value, 
amounts  to  twenty-eight  dollars  a  sheet.  It  was  extremely  important 
for  Richter  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  an  honest  publisher;  for,  through 
simplicity  or  ignorance,  he  never  specified  the  number  of  copies  of  any 
of  his  works.  The  printers,  therefore,  printed  an  unlimited  number; 
and  this  is  the  reason  his  works  reached  so  few  editions  during  his  life. 


382  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

To  the  widowed  sister  of  his  wife,  Minna  Spazier,  who 
supported  her  young  family  by  editing  an  ahnanac  for 
ladies,  and  to  whom  he  sent  many  contributions,  he 
wrote,  "  that  it  was  easier  for  him  to  write  a  volume 
than  a  sheet,  and  that  he  could  bear  any  limitation 
better  than  an  intellectual  one."  In  this  same  'letter, 
he  says,  in  answer  to  the  request  of  the  sister  that 
Caroline  would  v/rite  something  for  her  Almanac,  "  Cai'- 
oline  is  a  jDoet  in  her  life,  and  by  that  very  life  rather 
than  upon  paper  and  for  the  public." 

Paul's  third  child,  a  daughter,  was  named  for  his  dear- 
est friend,  softening  Otto  into  the  pretty  feminine  name 
of  Odilia. 

The  unfolding  and  culture  of  all  that  was  good  and 
beautiful  in  his  children  was  one  of  the  most  delightful 
employments  of  Richter.  He  knew  that  a  better  future 
was  only  to  be  acquired  by  a  better  youth,  and  he  em- 
ployed himself  in  writing  Levana,  his  work  upon  edu- 
cation, 

A  critic  says,  that  "  in  no  other  of  his  works  is  the 
whole  man,  in  his  inward  and  outward  being,  and  in  his 
relations  with,  and  reciprocal  dependencies  on,  the  out- 
ward world,  so  unfolded  as  In  this.  As  is  the  case  with 
all  his  other  works,  they  reflect  light  upon  this,  and  they 
also  are  better  understood  if  read  by  the  light  derived 
fi'om  this." 

Perhaps  it  will  be  an  objection  to  this  work,  especially 
in  so  practical  an  age  and  country  as  this,  that  tlie  ten- 
dency of  Richter's  system  of  education  is,  to  make  all 
men  and  women,  if  not  actually  writers  and  poets,  yet 
supremely  thinking  and  spiritual  beings.  The  tendency 
is  to  withdraw  too  much  talent  from  actual  and  practical 
life,  and  direct  it  to  speculative  and  intellectual  pursuits. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  385 

One  of  the  marked  peculiarities  of  Richter  was,  that  in 
actual  life  he  was  the  most  practical  of  men,  suffering 
none  of  the  minutiaj  that  could  influence  the  convenience 
of  others  to  escape  him,  but  in  his  instructions  all  was 
spiritual  and  transcendental.    . 

No  writer  upon  education  has  thrown  so  much  light 
upon  the  holy  and  hidden  impulses  of  the  child's  soul; 
no  one  has  written  with  such  reverence  of  the  childish 
nature,  and  the  necessity  in  a  teacher  of  respecting  the 
indwiduaUty  of  the  child ;  and  not,  as  has  been  too  much 
the  practice,  measuring  all  upon  the  same  Procrustes' 
bed.  It  is  in  fact  a  commentary  upon  those  words  of  the 
Saviour,  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  and  no  less  of  the  other 
verse,  "  in  my  father's  house  are  many  mansions,"  some 
prepared  for  angelic  minds,  and  others  for  those  of  an 
humbler  order,  but  all  are  filled. 

That  which  had  distinguished  all  his  works  was  even 
more  apparent  in  this,  a  singulai-  knowledge  of  the  female 
heart  in  its  deepest  and  most  delicate  folds.  This  he  had 
gained  in  his  Hofer  solitude,  where  he  lived  almost  ex- 
clusively with  women,  and  in  his  subsequent  correspond- 
ence with  his  female  friends.  Perhaps  there  never  was 
a  writer  to  whom  women  so  completely  surrendered  their 
confidence.  He  understood  the  false  position  in  which 
women  are  placed  in  some  parts  of  the  civilized  world, 
and  he  had  on  tiiat  account  more  leniency  for  their  vices 
and  weaknesses  than  for  the  other  sex. 

Richter  strove  in  this  work  to  return  to  a  simplicity 
of  expression,  and  plain,  lucid  style  of  writing,  which  he 
had  long  since  abandoned,  but  which  he  tliought  better 
adapted  to  the  persons  he  wished  now  to  benefit;  and 
also  in  order  to  explain  all  scientific  and  too  learned  illus- 


384  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

trations,  he  published  at  the  same  time  a  Lexicon  fur 
Frauen,  — ''  Lexicon  for  Ladies." 

Although  the  passages  are  innumerable  in  Jean  Paul's 
works  where  he  speaks  of  women  Avith  tenderness  and 
respect,  and,  for  the  above-mentioned  reason,  treats  them 
with  leniency,  yet  it  is  impossible  to  surpass  the^'bitter 
contempt,  the  concentrated  scorn,  with  which  he  speaks 
of  those  women  who  have  thrown  off  the  restraints  of 
their  sex,  or  of  those  cold  and  selfish  coquettes,  "  whose 
hearts  have  become  as  hard  within  their  breasts  as  the 
stones  that  glitter  on  the  outside." 

This  book,  the  Levana,  was  more  favorably  received 
than  any  book  he  had  ever  published.  The  sympathy 
was  so  universal  that  the  whole  of  the  edition  was  sold 
during  the  disastrous  year  of  1807.  Even  Goethe  forgot 
his  hostility  to  the  author ;  and  seeing  an  extract  from  the 
work,  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  I  know  not  how  to  say  good 
enough  of  this  extract  from  Levana,  and  desire  with  im- 
patience the  whole  work." 

About  two  weeks  after  the  publication  of  Letmna  oc- 
curred the  battle  of  Jena,  and  the  last  hopes  for  Ger- 
many (of  those  who  placed  their  hopes  upon  the  resist- 
ance of  Prussia)  failed;  and  that  remarkable  time  began 
when  the  greater  part  of  the  nation  suffered  a  complete 
prostration  before  the  preponderance  of  the  genius  of 
Napoleon. 

It  is  difficult  to  gather  from  Richter's  biographers  the 
precise  view  he  took,  at  this  time,  of  the  aims  of  Napo- 
leon. We  find  this  passage  in  his  journal.  "  Did  I  cer- 
tainly know,"  he  wrote  in  1805,  "  that  Napoleon  was  in 
the  wrong,  and  as  certainly  all  just  means  of  resistance 
against  him,  ah !  it  were  easy  to  venture  even  life  against 
him  with  the  pen.    But  this  uncertainty  fearfully  cripples 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  385 

the  courage  of  the  cosmopolitan,  who  must  discern  his 
aims  through  their  consequences.  This  it  is  that  per- 
plexes and  obstructs,  and  is  the  reason  that,  among  so 
many  thousand  intricacies  and  involvements  of  human 
affairs,  no  sacrificing  soul  finds  it  easy  to  give  his  life  to 
discover  the  right.  The  moral  principle,  that  the  inten- 
tion, the  will,  is  everything,  helps  not  here,  for  we  need 
the  discernment  to  discover  the  will."  That  Richter  be- 
lieved ?d  first  in  the  sincerity  of  Napoleon  appears  from 
his  writing  to  Otto  upon  being  informed  of  his  assuming 
tlie  diadem.  "  Who  has  not  gnashed  his  teeth  upon  hear- 
ing of  his  Imperial  Majesty  in  France?  Yet  I  do  not 
hate  Bonaparte  as  much  as  I  despise  the  French;  and 
Goethe  was  more  far-sighted  than  half  the  world ;  for  in 
the  beginning  of  the  revolution  he  despised  them  as  much 
as  at  the  end." 

But  even  at  the  confederation  of  the  Rhine,  Richter 
did  not  share  the  complete  prostration  that  involved  the 
rest  of  the  nation.  "  His  prophetic  feeling  told  him  at 
that  time,  what  better  experience  has  taught  the  nations 
of  Europe,  that  all  must  unite  in  the  common  cause  of 
freedom ;  and  that  one  without  the  rest  could  not  ad- 
vance in  the  road  to  civilization  and  better  government." 
He  perhaps  thought  that  Napoleon,  by  destroying  some 
of  the  old  and  rotting  institutions,  and  clearing  away  the 
rubbish,  was  preparing  the  way  for  tliQ  advancement  of 
light  and  freedom,  and  that  Austria,  who  would  imprison 
her  subjects  forever  in  spiritual  darkness,  deserved  no 
support  from  his  pen.  He  held  the  depression  of  the 
hopes  and  spirits  of  the  people  as  one  of  the  greatest 
evils  of  the  time  ;  and  he  sought  to  enliven  and  keep 
up  their  courage  by  writings  purely  comic,  that  had  no 
other  aim  than  to  contribute  to  their  cheei-fulness.  These 
17  T 


386  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

were  the  Circular  Letter  of  Attila  Sckmelzle,  and  Ihe 
Sathjourney  of  Dr.  Katzenhurger,  both"  infinitely  rich 
in  purely  comic  scenes.  They  were  received  with  inex- 
pressible delight  by  the  whole  nation,  and  contributed  to 
raise  the  spirits  of  the  people.  Richter  also  contributed 
his  share  to  the  revival,  at  this  time,  of  the  old  German 
or  Volks  literature.  It  is  well  known  that  apprehensions 
were  felt  of  the  too  great  preponderance  of  the  French 
in  the  literature  of  the  time.  The  exertions  of  Bren- 
tano,  Arnim,  and  Von  der  Hogen,  with  whom  Tieck 
and  the  Sclilegels  joined,  arose  from  this  cause.  They 
published  anew  the  Niehelungenlied,  the  Knabens  Wun- 
derhorn,  and  went  even  to  the  bringing  out  of  Fouque's 
extravagances,  and  to  complete  caricature  in  his  later 
works. 

The  war  had  yet  no  other  immediately  disastrous 
consequences  for  Richter  than  that  of  withdrawing  his 
friend  Otto  from  his  family  and  neighborhood.  He  had 
been  appointed  quartermaster  to  Prince  William  of  Prus- 
sia, and  accompanied  the  army  so  that  the  correspondence 
of  the  friends  was  renewed,  altliough  with  the  difficulty 
of  transmitting  letters  through  a  country  occupied  with 
troops.  But  in  the  autumn  of  1806  the  French  troops 
were  stationed  in  Bayreuth,  and  Richter  must  have  suf- 
fered a  very  inconvenient  interruption  of  his  peaceful 
labors,  had  two  or  three  officers,  as  was  usual  in  such 
circumstances,  been  quartered  in  his  quiet  and  orderly 
dwelling.  He  picked  up,  therefore,  his  former  knowledge 
of  French,  and  wrote  the  following  letter  to  General 
Bernadotte. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  387 

JEAN  PAUL  AU  GENERAL  BERNADOTTE. 

Quatre  Verites,  deux  Esperances  et  une  Demande. 
Ve'ritc's. 

Premiere.  Vous,  Monseigneur,  n'aves  du  triste  dieu 
Mars,  que  la  valeur ;  et  vous  aimes  les  homines  et  les 
lettres  autant,  que  la  gloire. 

Seconde.  Moi,  je  suis  auteur — je  vis  pour  ecrire  et 
j'^cris  pour  vivre  —  ma  plume  nourrit  ma  femme,  trois 
enfans,  un  chien,  un  oiseau,  et  moi-meme.  C'est  pourquoi 
que  ce  seroit  appauvrir  le  pauvre  que  d'y  ajouter  un  etre 
vivant  et  mangeant  de  plus. 

Troisieme.  La  Muse  veut  de  la  solitude,  et  la  guerre 
ou  la  victoire  veut  (votre  Altesse  le  sait)  tout  I'Europe. 

Quatrieme.  La  nation  Frangoise  a  toujoiu'S  honore 
les  lettres,  qui  Tout  honore  h.  leur  tour  —  sa  gloire  s'ache- 
vant  par  la  valeur  s'est  commencee  par  les  lettres  — 
I'Erapereur  Napoleon  a  laisse  Gottingen  et  Heidelberg 
aux  Muses. 

Esp&ances. 

L  J'espere  que  la  piece  ci-jointe,  quoiqu'elle  flatte  plus 
qu'elle  ne  peint,  prouvera  h.  votre  Altesse,  que  j'ai  obtenu 
quelques  suffrages  de  ma  nation  pour  mes  oeuvres  roman- 
tiques,  philosophiques  et  morales. 

11.  J'espere,  qu'en  cas  de  gueiTe  ma  maison,  ou  plustOt 
mon  etude  sera  exemte  de  la  charge  d'avoir  des  troupes 
en  quartier  et  qu'elle  demeurera  I'asyle  de  ma  Muse. 

Demande. 
J'implore  Thumanit^  de  votre  Altesse  h.  rdaliser  ces 
esperances,  apres  les  avoir  pardonn^es.     Qu'une  ligne  de 
votre  main  veuille  m'assurer  la  paix,   que  meritent  la 


388  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

po^sie  et  la  philosophie,  parce  qu'elles  la  propagent.  La 
main  vaillante  verse  le  sang ;  la  main  bienfaisante  tarit 
les  larmes  ;  mais  vous  aves  les  deux  mains. 

Je  suis,  Monseigneur,  avec  le  respect  le  plus  profond 
Votre  Altesse 

tres-humble  serviteur, 

JEAN  PAUL  FR.  RICHTER. 

Richter  thus  disarmed  his  enemies  :  he  was  permitted 
to  pursue  his  labors  without  interruption,  and  soon  pro- 
duced the  comic  works  already  mentioned.  By  his  wit 
he  escaped,  also,  another  unjust  imposition.  He  had  been 
taxed,  together  with  the  capitalists  of  Bayreuth,  to  sup- 
port the  war.  He  wrote  to  the  minister,  and  asked  "  if 
one  who  had  only  money  enough  for  his  daily  wants,  and 
who  was  indebted  to  Bayreuth  for  nothing  but  beer  and 
ennui,  could  be  reckoned  a  capitalist,  —  that  he  would 
pay  a  just,  although  he  would  deny  an  unjust  demand,  if 
it  were  only  four  groschen,  for  all  was  indifferent  to  him 
except  justice."  The  minister  answered,  "  That,  as  the 
exact  tariff  could  not  be  fixed,  thought  was  free  from  con- 
tribution," and  invited  Richter  to  dine  with  him. 

We  have  seen  that  Richter  did  not,  in  the  darkest 
times,  share  the  universal  depression  of  his  country ;  a 
prophetic  insight  into  the  future  enabled  him  to  penetrate 
the  cloud,  and  to  see  that  an  eclipse  was  not  the  end  of  all 
things.  In  all  his  political  writings,  an  unwavering  hope, 
like  the  voice  and  guaranty  of  Providence,  leads  him 
through  that  dark  time.  But  when  roused,  as  by  the 
voice  of  a  trumpet,  all  Germany  arose  against  the  power 
of  Napoleon,  no  one  entered  with  word  and  deed  more 
warmly  into  the  holy  cause  than  Jean  Paul.  In  his 
Dawiv'ng  for    Germany,   he    did    not   limit   himself  to 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  389 

prophesying  from  the  whole  course  of  history  a  better 
future  for  Germany,  or  to  reminding  the  nation  of  its 
power  and  advantages ;  he  strove  to  destroy  that  op- 
pressive feeling  of  the  preponderance  of  the  French, 
which  had  extended  to  all  ranks ;  that  eye  and  spirit- 
blinding  belief  in  the  star  of  Napoleon,  that  weighed 
with  almost  Turkish  fatality  upon  the  people.  With  a 
courage  that  bordered  on  rashness,  he  endeavored  to  con- 
fine the  admiration  of  Napoleon  within  its  just  limits. 
He  often  asked  the  question,  "  What,  then,  does  a  great 
conqueror  deserve  ? "  He  placed  his  merit  beneath  the 
science  of  a  Newton,  the  courage  of  a  Socrates  or  a  Cato, 
and  the  admirable  wisdom  of  the  true  republicans  of  all 
time,  etc. 

And  this  he  ventured  to  write  and  publish,  while  he 
owed  his  freedom  in  his  own  house  to  the  French  marshal 
Davoust. 

How  gloriously  is  he  contrasted  with  another  great 
poet  of  the  time,  who  was  living  joyously  in  retirement, 
drinking  Cape  wine,  busy  with  his  optics,  and  studying 
osteology,  for  which  "  there  could  not  be  a  better  oppor- 
tunity, for  every  battle-field  of  his  country  was  sown  with 
preparations."  * 

*  Knebel  wrote  to  Richter,  after  the  battle  of  Jena:  "  Goethe  sent 
me,  in  my  necessity,  a  couple  of  flasks  of  Cape  wine,  that  came  at  the 
exact  time  to  a  man  that  the  French  had  wholly  drank  dry.  Ee  was 
the  whole  time  busy  with  his  optics.  We  study  here,  under  his  in- 
sti-uction,  osteology,  for  which  it  is  an  excellent  time,  as  every  field  is 
sown  with  preparations." 


CHAPTER    III 


Pecuniary  Embarrassments.  —  Prince  Dalberg.  —  Paul  re- 
ceives A  SMALL  Pension.  —  Extract  from  Varnhagen  von 
Ensk's  Memoirs. 


IICHTER  at  this  time  suffered  some  a.  d.  1808, 
anxiety  on  account  of  his  diminished 
pecuniary  resources.  The  book  concerns  of 
tlie  time  were  becoming  every  day  more  unfa- 
voral)le,  and  pressed  heavily  upon  authors.  A  great 
work  required  from  him  concentrated  attention,  leisure, 
and  quiet  thought ;  neither  of  which  could  he  command, 
feeling,  as  he  did,  decj^  sympathy  with  the  troubles  of  his 
country  ;  neither  would  the  booksellers  venture  upon  any 
large  work  ;  he  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  break  down  and 
divide  his  powers  in  the  production  of  many  of  the 
ephemeral  essays  of  the  day.  At  this  time  and  talent 
consuming  employment  he  worked  so  incessantly  that  at 
last  his  firm  health  was  shaken,*  and  immediate  rest  or 
recreation  became  absolutely  requisite. 

*  Jean  Paul's  contributions  to  the  periodical  literature  of  the  day 
fill  several  volumes  of  his  collected  works.  The  titles  of  sonic  of  these 
contributions  sire,  —  "  Upon  the  Advantages  of  being  Deaf  in  one  Ear  " ; 
".June  Night  Thoughts";  "The  Dream  of  a  Madman ";"  Marriage 
Looking-Glasses  ";  "  The  Pleasure  we  fuel  in  the  Joj-s  of  Children  "; 
"  Fragments  from  my  Art  of  always  being  Cheerful  "  ;  "  Upon  the 
Evergreen  of  our  Feelings,"  and  many  reviews  of  modern  works. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  391 

He  was  attacked  with  a  tertian  fever,  that  obliged  him 
to  give  up  writing  every  third  day.  "  On  that  day,"  he 
says,  "  he  read  philosophy,  and  was  able  to  forget  the 
ague  fit  when  the  shaking  would  permit  him  to  hold 
the  book." 

Richter  had  dedicated  his  Peace  Sermons  to  Carl  von 
Dalberg,*  Prince  Primate  of  the  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine.  In  this  dedication  he  hinted  so  delicately  at  his 
poverty  that  the  Prince,  in  an  extremely  gracious  answer, 
was  obliged  to  ask  liim  to  declare  his  wishes. 

Richter  answered :  "  An  author  of  more  than  forty 
volumes,  an  orphan,  who  has  lived  more  for  than  hy  the 
sciences,  ventures  now,  after  three  years'  war,  the  birth 
of  three  children,  and  the  failure  of  three  of  his  book- 
sellers, to  wish  for  a  winter  pension  to  enable  him  to 
recover  his  health  through  more  reading  and  less 
writing." 

It  was  not  in  the  Prince's  power  to  do  more  at  the  mo- 
ment than  to  send  Jean  Paul  a  considerable  present,  with 
a  most  kind  and  courteous  letter.  But  early  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  surprised  him  with  a  pension  of  a  thou- 
sand guilders  (four  hundred  dollars),  which  he  paid  out 
of  his  private  purse  until  1811,  when  the  payment  of  the 
same  sura  was  placed  on  the  common  pension  fund  of 
Bavaria. 

*  This  prince  is  mentioned  so  often,  that  it  should  be  known  that 
he  was  one  of  the  most  generous  noblemen  of  the  time,  and  a  munifi- 
cent patron  of  literature.  He  was  Archbishop  of  Ratisbon  and  Bishop 
of  Worms,  and  is  the  same  Prince  Bishop  tliat  Bcitine  Brentano  men- 
tions so  playfully  and  so  pleasantly  in  Goethe's  Correspondence  with  a 
Child.  "  In  1813  he  voluntarily  resigned  all  his  possessions  as  a  sover- 
eign prince,  retaining  only  his  ecclesiastical  dignity,  and  retired  to 
private  life.  He  afterwards  devoted  himself  to  letters,  and  published 
many  moral  and  legal  treatises."  It  was  a  brother  of  this  prince  who 
was  Schiller's  first  patron.  —  Conversations  Lex. 


392  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

A  letter  from  Caroline  Herder,  written  about  this  time, 
precedes  for  only  a  few  months  her  own  death.  * 

"  May,  1809. 

"  Beloved,  unforgotten  friend,  our  hearts  fly  to  meet  you 
and  God,  and  the  Prince  Primas.  Thus  are  our  warmest 
wishes  at  last  fulfilled.  Dalberg  is  your  and  our  bene- 
factor. God  bless  him  !  O  friend  !  how  is  my  heart 
moved.     I  am  happy  with  you,  with  your  Caroline,  and 

your   children In   your   last,  the  Flegeljahre,  you 

have  overpowered  me  with  new  spiritual  treasures,  with 
a  thousand  joys,  new  joys,  a  newer  and  happier  humor. 
Sketcher  of  man's  and  God's  world  !  Florist  !  who 
from  the  old  seed,  in  a  happy  moment,  makes  a  thou- 
sand-fold new  flowei-3  to  blossom.  O,  what  an  inex- 
pressible good  for  me  is  this  brilliant  exchange  of 
smiles  and  tears !  .  .  .  .  Do  you  remain  in  BajTCuth,  or 
go  to  Frankfort?  We  might  create  a  Paradisaic  place 
for  you ;  yet  wherever  you  are,  your  home  is  your  Par- 
adise." 

Richter  was  now  in  comparatively  happy  circumstances. 
With  their  simple  habits,  and  his  Caroline's  good  economy 
and  watchfulness,  four  hundred  dollars,  in  addition  to  his 
daily  earnings,  made  them  rich. 

A  letter  to  Otto,  who  was  separated  from  him  by  the 
war,  is  characteristic  of  this  period. 

" .  .  .  .  How  often  this  winter  have  I  wished  that  you 
could  have  met  me  in  the  street,  or  in  the  Harmony,  then 
you  would  have  seen  my  little  stjiiirrel  upon  my  slioulder, 
who  bites  no  longer.  I  ventured  to  carry  him  in  my 
pocket  when  I  held  Dobineck's  son  before  the  baptism 
font ;  but  I  was  obliged  to  grasp  him  several  times,  and 
wind  him  in  my  handkerchief;  for  if,  while  I  held  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  393 

blessed  little  godson  in  my  arras,  the  rogne  had  crept 
«pon  my  shoulder,  there  would  have  been  a  universal 
disturbance  of  the  baptism,  and  everything  serious.  At 
this  moment  the  little  fellow  sleeps  upon  my  sofa. 

"  Had  it  not  been  for  the  war,  my  Levana  would  have 
come  to  a  second  edition,  —  wonderful !  For  none  of  my 
books  have  I  so  much  feared  the  judgment  of  the  public, 
and  of  fate  ;  as  much  as  I  hoped,  by  the  Titan,  —  but  the 
public  always  surprises  one  so,  at  least  unpleasantly.  My 
inmost  being  remains  strong,  dry,  cold  !  The  spring,  with 
all  its  starry  heaven,  has  not  melted  me.  I  would  remain 
strong  and  cold,  even  till  the  great  world's  game  of  Europe 
is  won.  Opposition  only  spurs  me  on,  to  work,  to  work 
with  the  best,  and  with  the  utmost  of  my  powers  for  the 
improvement  of  all What  time  destroys  these  exer- 
tions will  restore.  If  the  devils  are  a  majority,  yet  the 
angels  are  a  larger,  —  yes,  I  say  a  larger,  for  in  human 
nature  ten  angels  are  worth  a  hundred  devils  :  were  it  not 
so,  the  excess  of  weak,  foolish,  and  bad  would  long  since 
have  sunk  humanity  instead  of  saving  it 

"  ....  I  rejoice  even  now  at  your  future  joy  over  my 
three  unlike,  but  unspoilt  rose-buds  of  children,  —  and  it 
is  difficult  to  say  which  will  be  your  favorite.  Ah,  were 
you  here  !  and  yet  I  cannot  desire  it,  as  you  are  now 
building  your  future  fortune.  You  have,  on  account  of 
your  knowledge  and  desert,  the  greater  claims.  This  war 
should  give  you  full  confidence  in  the  friendly  genius  that 
goes  with  you  through  life.  Your  rare  fortune  has  re- 
joiced, but  not  surprised  me,  and  had  you  anything  of  my 
bold  grasp  into  life,  you  would  have  had  it  before.  I  am 
curious  whether  you  will  appear  to  me  like  a  man  of  the 
world  when  I  see  you  again.  I  should  think  all  these 
grand  persons  would  make  you  a  little  bold.  My  wife 
17* 


394  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

greets  you  heartily,  and  we  both  wish  you  the  balsam  and 
nourishment  of  joy." 

At  this  period,  1808,  Richter  received  a  visit  from  HeiT 
Varnhagen  von  Ense.  He  has  left  in  his  memoirs  such  a 
pleasant  account  of  him  and  his  family,  that  the^reader 
will  pardon  me  for  introducing  it  here. 

"This  forenoon  (it  was  the  23d  October),  I  went  to 
Jean  Paul's.  A  pleasant,  kindly,  inquisitive  woman,  who 
had  opened  the  door  to  me,  I  at  once  recognized  for  Jean 
Paul's  wife  by  her  likeness  to  her  sister.  A  child  was 
sent  off  to  call  its  father.  He  came  directly ;  he  had 
been  forewarned  of  my  visit  by  letters  from  Berlin  and 
Leipzig,  and  received  me  with  great  kindness. 

"  First  of  all  I  had  to  tell  him  what  I  was  charged  with 
in  the  shape  of  messages,  then  whatsoever  I  could  tell  in 
any  way  about  his  Berlin  friends.  He  willingly  remem- 
bered the  time  he  had  lived  in  Berlin,  as  JNIarcus  Herz's 
neighbor,  in  Leder's  house,  where  I,  seven  years  before, 
had  first  seen  him  in  the  garden  by  the  Spi'ce,  with  papers 
in  his  hand,  which  it  was  privately  whispered  were  leaves 
of  Hesperus.  This  talk  about  persons,  and  then  still  more 
about  literature  growing  out  of  that,  set  him  fairly  under 
way,  and  soon  he  had  more  to  impart  than  to  inquire. 
His  conversation  was  throughout  amiable  and  good-na- 
tured, always  full  of  meaning,  but  in  quite  simple  tone 
and  expression.  Though  I  knew  beforehand  that  his  wit 
and  humor  belonged  wholly  to  his  pen,  —  that  he  could 
hardly  write  the  shortest  note  without  these  introducing 
themselves,  while  on  the  contrary  his  oral  utterance  sel- 
dom showed  the  like,  —  yet  it  struck  me  much,  that,  in 
this  continual  movement  and  vivacity  of  mood  to  which 
he  yielded  himself,  I  observed  no  trace  of  these  qualities. 
His  demeanor  otherwise  was  like  his  speaking ;  nothing 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  395 

forced,  nothing  studied,  nothing  that  went  beyond  the 
burgher  tone.  His  courtesy  was  the  free  expression  of 
a  kind  heart ;  his  way  and  bearing  were  patriarchal,  con- 
siderate of  the  stranger,  yet  for  himself  too  altogether 
unconstrained.  Neither  in  the  animation  to  which  some 
word  or  topic  would  excite  him  was  this  fundamental 
temper  ever  altered;  nowhere  did  severity  appear,  no- 
where any  exhibiting  of  himself,  any  watching  or  spying 
of  his  hearer ;  everywhere  kind-heartedness,  free  move- 
ment of  his  somewhat  loose-flowing  nature's  open  course 
for  him,  with  a  hundred  transitions  from  one  course  to 
the  other,  howsoever  or  whithersoever  it  seemed  good  to 
him  to  go.  At  first  he  praised  everything  that  was  named 
of  our  new  appearances  in  literature  ;  and  then,  when  we 
came  a  little  closer  to  the  matter,  there  was  blame  enough 
and  to  spare.  So  of  Adam  Miiller's  Lectures,  of  Fried- 
rich  Schlegel,  of  Tieck,  and  others.  He  said  German 
writei'S  ought  to  hold  by  the  people,  not  by  the  upper 
classes,  among  whom  all  was  already  dead  and  gone ;  and 
yet  he  had  just  been  praising  Adam  Miiller,  that  he  had 
the  gift  of  speaking  a  deep  word  to  cultivated  people  of 
the  world.  He  is  convinced  that  from  the  opening  of  the 
old  Indian  world  nothing  is  to  be  got  for  us,  except  the 
adding  of  one  other  mode  of  poetry  to  the  many  modes 
we  have  already,  but  no  increase  of  ideas :  and  yet  he 
had  just  been  celebrating  Friedrich  Schlegel's  labors  with 
the  Sanscrit,  as  if  a  new  salvation  were  to  issue  out  of 
that.  He  was  free  to  confess  that  a  right  Chi-istian  in 
these  days,  if  not  a  Protestant  one,  was  inconceivable  to 
him  ;  that  changing  from  Protestantism  to  Catholicism 
seemed  a  monstrous  perversion ;  and  with  this  opinion 
great  hope  had  been  expressed,  a  few  minutes  before, 
that  the  Catholic  spirit  in  Friedrich  Schlegel,  combined 


396  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

with  the  Indian,  would  produce  muck  good  !  Of  Schleier- 
macher  he  spoke  with  respect ;  signified,  however,  that  he 
did  not  relish  his  '  Plato '  greatly ;  that  in  Jacobi's,  in 
Herder's,  soaring  flight  of  soul  he  traced  far  more  of  those 
divine  old  sages  than  in  the  learned  acumen  of  Schleier- 
macher ;  a  deliverance  which  I  could  not  let  pass  without 
protest.  Fichte,  of  whose  'Adch-esses  to  the  German 
Nation,'  held  in  Berlin  under  the  sound  of  French  drums, 
I  had  much  to  say,  was  not  a  favorite  of  his  ;  the  decisive- 
ness of  that  energy  gave  him  uneasiness  ;  he  said  he  could 
only  read  Fichte  as  an  exercise,  '  gymnastically,'  and  that 
with  the  purport  of  his  philosophy  he  had  now  nothing 
more  to  do. 

"  Jean  Paul  was  called  out,  and  I  stayed  awhile  alone 
with  his  wife.  I  had  now  to  answer  many  new  questions 
about  Berlin ;  her  interest  in  persons  and  things  of  her 
native  town  was  by  no  means  sated  with  wliat  she  had 
already  heard.  The  lady  pleased  me  exceedingly ;  soft, 
refined,  acute,  she  united  with  the  loveliest  expression  of 
household  goodness  an  air  of  higher  breeding  and  deeper 
insight  than  Jean  Paul  seemed  to  manifest.  Yet  in  this 
respect  too  she  willingly  held  herself  inferior,  and  looked 
up  to  her  gifted  husband.  It  was  apparent  every  way 
that  tlieir  life  together  was  a  right  happy  one.  Their 
three  children,  a  boy  and  two  girls,  are  beautiful,  healthy, 
well-conditioned  creatures.  A  boy,  Max,  of  five  years 
old,  is  evidently  the  favorite  of  the  father,  who  sees  in  him 
a  future  hero.  Indeed,  he  is  perfectly  strong  and  vigor- 
ous, and  also  of  distinguished  beauty.  Two  girls,  Emma 
and  Odilie,  older  and  younger  than  the  boy,  looked  very 
amiable,  and  show  by  remarkable  diversity  of  talent  the 
undoubted  goodness  of  the  parents.  All  three  are  com- 
pletely unconstrained,  free,  and  childUke.    I  had  a  hearty 


LIFE   OF  JEAN  PAUL.  397 

pleasure  in  them ;  they  recalled  other  dear  children  to 
my  thoughts,  whom  I  had  lately  been  beside !  .  .  .  . 

"  With  continual  copiousness,  and  in  the  best  humor, 
Jean  Paul  (we  were  now  at  table)  expatiated  on  all 
manner  of  objects.  Among  the  rest,  I  had  been  charged 
with  a  salutation  from  Rahel  Levin  to  him,  and  the  modest 
question,  '  Whether  he  remembered  her  still  ? '  His  face 
beamed  with  joyful  satisfaction :  '  How  could  one  forget 
such  a  person  ? '  cried  he,  impressively.  '  That  is  a  woman 
alone  of  her  kind :  I  liked  her  heartily  well,  and  'more 
now  than  ever,  as  I  gain  in  sense  an  apprehension  to  do 
it ;  she  is  the  only  woman  in  whom  I  have  found  genuine 
humor,  the  one  woman  of  th'  world  who  had  humor ! ' 
He  called  me  a  lucky  fellow  to  have  such  a  friend ;  and 
asked,  as  if  proving  me  and  measuring  my  value, '  How  I 
had  deserved  that  ? '  * 

"  Monday,  October  24. 

"  Being  invited,  I  went  a  second  time  to  dine.  Jean 
Paul  had  just  returned  from  a  walk ;  his  wife,  with  one 
of  the  children,  was  still  out.  We  came  upon  his  writ- 
ings ;  that  questionable  string  with  most  authors,  which 
the  one  will  not  have  you  touch,  which  another  will  have 
you  keep  jingling  continually.  He  was  here  what  I  ex- 
pected him  to  be  ;  free,  unconstrained,  good-natured,  and 
sincere  with  his  whole  heart.  His  '  Dream  of  a  Madman,' 
just  published  by  Cotta,  was  what  had  led  us  upon  this. 
He  said  he  could  write  such  things  at  any  time  ;  the  mood 
for  it,  when  he  was  in  health,  lay  in  his  own  power ;  he 
did  but  seat  himself  at  the  harpischord,  and  fantasying  for 
a  while  on  it  in  the  wildest  way,  deliver  himself  over  to 

*  Jean  Paul  did  not  think  of  M'de  S^vign^,  or  did  not  give  her  pe- 
culiarities the  right  name ;  for  what  the  French  praise  in  her  as  natu- 
ralness is  exactly  that  which  we  call  humor. 


398  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  feeling  of  tlie  moment,  and  then  write  his  imaginings, 
■ — according  to  a  certain  predetermined  course,  indeed, 
which,  however,  he  woidd  often  aher  as  he  went  on.  In 
this  kind  he  had  once  undertaken  to  write  a  '  Hell,'  such 
as  mortal  never  heard  of ;  and  a  great  deal  of  it  is  actually 
done,  hut  not  fit  for  print.  Speaking  of  descriptive  Com- 
position, he  also  started  as  in  fright  when  I  ventured  to 
say  that  Goethe  was  less  complete  in  this  province ;  he 
reminded  me  of  two  passages  in  '  Werter,'  which  are 
indeed  among  the  finest  descriptions.  He  said  that  to 
describe  any  scene  well  the  poet  must  make  the  bosom 
of  a  man  his  camera  obscura,  and  look  at  it  through  this, 

then  would  he  see  it  poetically 

"  The  conversation  turned  on  public  occurrences,  on 
the  condition  of  Germany,  and  the  oppressive  rule  of 
the  French.  To  me  discussions  of  that  sort  are  usually 
disagreeable  ;  but  it  was  delightful  to  hear  Jean  Paul 
express,  on  such  occasion,  his  noble  patriotic  sentiments ; 
and  for  the  sake  of  this  rock-island  I  willingly  swam 
through  the  empty  tide  of  uncertain  news  and  wavering 
suppositions  which  environed  it.  "Wliat  he  said  was  deep, 
,  considerate,  hearty,  valiant,  German  to  the  marrow  of  the 
bone.  I  had  to  tell  him  much ;  of  Napoleon,  whom  he 
knew  only  by  portraits ;  of  Joliannes  von  Miillcr ;  of 
Fichte,  whom  he  now  as  a  patriot  admired  cordially ; 
of  the  Marquez  de  la  Romana  and  his  Spaniards,  whom 
I  had  seen  in  Hamburg.  Jean  Paul  said  he  at  no  moment 
doubted  but  the  Germans,  like  the  Spaniards,  would  one 
day  rise,  and  Prussia  would  avenge  its  disgrace,  and  free 
the  country  ;  he  hoped  his  son  would  live  to  see  it,  and  did 

not  deny  that  he  was  bringing  him  up  for  a  soldier 

"  The  two  youngest  children  were  asleep.     I  wished  to 
leave  the  dear  creatures  a  remembrance  of  me,  and  placed 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  399 

myself  at  the  table  and  began  to  cut  out  some  pictures 
for  them.  When  Jean  Paul  saw  this  little  child's  world 
forming  under  his  eyes,  he  was  seized  with  the  feeling 
of  childhood,  called  his  wife  with  lively  animation,  and 
waked  the  other  children,  and  I  was  obliged  to  explain 
minutely  my  work.  In  such  conversation  and  business  a 
great  part  of  the  evening  passed,  and  I  felt  myself  com-" 
pletely  happy  in  the  midst  of  this  beautiful,  pure  family, 
that  already  looked  upon  me  as  a  friend. 

"  October  25. 

"  I  stayed  to  supper,  contrary  to  my  purpose,  having  to 
set  out  next  morning  early.  The  lady  was  so  kind,  and 
Jean  Paul  himself  so  trustful  and  blithe,  I  could  not  with- 
stand their  entreaties.  At  the  neat  and  well-furnished 
table  (reminding  you  that  South  Germany  was  now  near) 
the  best  humor  reigned.  Among  other  things  we  had  a 
good  laugh  at  this,  that  Jean  Paul  offered  me  an  intro- 
duction to  one  of  what  he  called  his  dearest  friends  in 
Stuttgart,  and  then  was  obliged  to  give  it  up,  having 
irrevocably  forgotten  his  name  !  Of  a  more  serious  soi't 
again  was  our  conversation  about  Tieck,  Friedrich  and 
Wilhelm  Schlegel,  and  others  of  the  romantic  school. 
He  seemed  in  ill-humor  with  Tieck  at  the  moment.  Of 
Goethe  he  said,  '  Goethe  is  a  consecrated  head ;  he  has 
a  place  of  his  own,  high  above  us  all.'  We  spoke  of 
Goethe  afterwards  for  some  time :  Jean  Paul  with  more 
and  more  admiration,  nay,  with  a  sort  of  fear  and  awe- 
struck reverence. 

"  Some  beautiful  fruit  was  brought  in  for  dessert.  On 
a  sudden  Jean  Paul  started  up,  gave  me  his  hand,  and 
said :  '  Forgive  me,  I  must  go  to  bed  !  Stay  you  here  in 
God's  name,  for  it  is  still  early,  and  chat  with  my  wife ; 
there  is  much  to  say  between  you,  which  my  talking  has 


400 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


kept  back.  I  am  a  Spiesshurger '  (of  the  club  of  Odd 
Fellows),  'and  my  hour  is  come  for  sleep.'  He  took  a 
candle,  and  said  good  night.  We  parted  with  great  cor- 
diality, and  the  wish  expressed  on  both  sides  that  I  might 
stay  at  Bayreuth  another  time." 


CHAPTER    IV. 


Domestic   Letters.  —  Journey  to   Erlangen.  —  Journey  to 

NURNBERG.  —  JaCOBI. 


A.  D.  1811, 

^t.  48. 


E  pass  over  three  quiet  years,  in 
which  no  event  of*  importance  oc- 
curred. Through  his  pension,  Paul's  circum- 
stances were  easier,  and  a  little  journey  to 
Erlangen  affords  an  opportunity  for  inserting  a  letter  to 
Caroline,  which  proves  that,  after  eleven  years  of  married 
life,  no  flower  had  faded  from  their  wreath  of  love  and 
happiness. 

"  Erlangen,  June  6,  1811. 

"My  dear  good  Caroline:  Like  this  beautiful 
morning  has  your  long-wished-for  letter  come  to  me. 
Every  word  of  it  was  welcome.  Fortunately,  I  did  not 
receive  it  till  the  evening,  when  I  long  heart-breakingly 
for  you  and  the  children. 

"  Max  was  on  the  way  so  tender,  pleasant,  and  appar- 
ently so  contented,  loving  all,  obeying  all  (he  certainly 
forgets  nothing  on  a  journey),  and  so  good,  that  I  began 
to  perceive  that  I  could  gather  the  fruit  of  the  education 
of  my  children,  and  how  much  better  they  really  are 
than  they  sometimes  appear.  He  slept  at  night  without 
undressing,  and  without  a  bed-cover,  like  one  dead ;  and 
in  the  morning  he  was  lively,  spirited,  and  gay.     The 

z 


402  LIFE    OF   JEAN    PAUL. 

thouglit  that  I  must  leave  liim  would  not,  the  whole  day, 
go  from  my  soid. 

"  The  middle-aged  Madam  S.  comes  when  I  ring,  and 
is  respectful  and  ready,  and  makes  my  coffee  and  bed  as 
I  like  tliem.  The  landlord,  Toussaint,  fulfils  every  wish, 
so  does  the  obliging  Professor  Mehmel.  In  the  morning 
heaven  dwells  in  my  solitary  apartment,  fuU  only  of 
books,  and  I  am  as  homelike,  but  more  alone  than  at 
Bayi-euth.  I  went  into  the  Italian  garden,  that  stands 
open  without  key,  and  without  kreutzers,  on  the  day  of 
the  great  Pentecost  church-consecration,  which  Otto  can 
paint  for  you  without  ink.  This  garden  terrace  is  the 
only  throne  of  Nature  in  the  beggarly  environs  of  Er- 
langen.  This  alone  would  frig;liten  me  from  a  residence 
here,  which  they  all  wish  to  persuade  me  to.  I  am  un- 
usually well,  and  joke  frequently  in  society 

"  I  put  by  the  pen,  to  sup  better  than  usual.     First  a 

morsel  of  cheese,  then  a  morsel  of  dessert  cake,  —  ah ! 

sliced  potatoes,  where  are  ye  ?     For  in  a  whole  week, 

none." 

"  June  12. 

"  My  best !  how  I  long  for  a  letter  from  thee  !  Since 
Sunday,  for  eight  days,  not  a  line !  This  one  cloud, 
which  is  indeed  broad  enough,  draws  itself  through  my 
blue  heaven.  Had  I  not  since  two  months  certain 
grounds  of  consolation,  or  to-day,  not  a  wonderful  con- 
fidence in  my  anticipations  that  ray  present  cheerfulness 
does  not  indicate  future  misfortunes,  I  should  become 
fi^arful  through  your  silence,  —  Heavens  !  how  much  you 
have  to  tell  me,  and  formerly  you  were  so  industrious  a 
letter-writer  !     Be  joyful,  good  Caroline." 

"  June  14. 

"  At  last  I  am  happy  without  alloy,  for  I  received  to- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  403 

day  thy  long-desired  letter.  Take  for  every  heart's  word, 
and  heart's  deed,  in  my  absence,  heart's  thanks !  Last 
Sunday  I  was  properly  frightened  that  I  forgot  your 
birthday,  and  I  found  it  in  the  calendar  under  the  name 
of  Lucretia.  After  my  return  we  will  celebrate  it  on  a 
fixed  day.  If  you  gave  attention,  you  will  have  seen 
that  the  last  week  in  May  I  wore  your  ring  on  the  little 
finger  of  my  right  hand.  The  heart  should  also  have  its 
festivals.*  I  could  be  borne  on  the  waves  of  society  here, 
for  every  one  comes  lovingly  to  me  ;  but  I  have  so  many 
books  before  me  that  I  keep  myself  solitary,  —  in  the 
evening,  reading,  and  eating  with  my  dog  only.  Either 
the  old,  true,  French  wine,  of  which  I  drink  daily  a 
quarter  of  a  bottle,  or  the  air,  or  very  rarely  a  draft  of 
rosaliera,  or  the  less  work,  or  all  together,  make  me  more 
healthy  than  I  have  been-  for  years.  No  thirst,  no  dry 
heat,  no  tremblings  ;  pardon  these  little  bodily  trifles,  — 
but  you,  dear  wife,  take  in  these  as  much  part  as  I  should 
in  the  smallest  of  your  ailments." 

"  Next  day. 

"  Yesterday  I  was  in  Nurnberg  with  the  Hofmeister, 

young  Rottenhahn,  and  the  bookseller  Walther,  I  was 

pleased  with   the  southern,  joyful,  hearty  tone   of  the 

people.     M.  will  return  with  me  on  Friday.     How  new 

*  The  last  week  in  May  was  the  anniversary  of  Richter's  marriage. 
His  finding  his  wife's  birthday  under  the  name  of  Lucretia  is  thus 
explauied.  The  German  custom  was  to  celebrate  not  only  the  birth- 
day, but  the  day  in  the  almanac  that  bore  the  person's  Cliristian  name. 
The  old  almanacs  contained  a  name  for  every  day  in  the  year,  the 
name  of  a  saint,  or  some  other  remarkable  person.  When  Jean  Paul, 
then,  proposed  fixing  a  day  to  celebrate  Caroline's  birthday,  he  would 
probably  choose  the  day  that  bore  the  name  of  Caroline.  I  am  in- 
debted for  this  explanation  to  the  notes  upon  Mr.  Tracey's  charming 
translation  of  Undine. 


404  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

and  beautiful  all  will  appear  to  me !  If  you  have  ex- 
perienced anything  that  will  not  be  pleasant  to  me,  write 
it,  that  I  may  forget  it  on  the  way,  and  the  heavenly  even- 
ing of  our  meeting  again  pass  without  a  cloud.  Ah !  the 
post  draws  near,  and  I  have  so  much  to  say  to  my  faith- 
ful friend,  wdio  has  done  so  much  for  me,  and  loves  me  so 
fervently.  Heavens !  how  often  have  I  thought  of  you 
with  ovei'powering  ecstasy  when  at  night  your  face,  with 
its  indescribable  love's  eyes  and  love's  glance,  has  sud- 
denly appeared  to  me,  as  a  form  out  of  the  empty  air. 
But  that  ecstasy  remains  a  reality  for  me  yet,  —  for  you 
live,  and  I  return.     Ah,  it  goes  to  your  soul  as  to  mine." 

The  following  year  Richter  went  to  Nurnberg  to  meet 
Jacobi.  The  reader  will  recollect  that  tliey  had  corre- 
sponded for  some  years,  but  had  never  met. 

After  mentioning  the  discomforts  of  their  inn  in  a  let- 
ter to  Otto,  he  goes  on  to  describe  his  friend.  "  I  played 
with  accustomed  moderation  the  lamb,  and  remained  se- 
date, only  saying  to  my  ever-hasty  companion,  '  In  the 
morning  we  shall  have  time  enough.'  I  can  now  bear 
witness  to  my  second  remark,  that  there  is  no  better  sign 
of  a  pleasant  future  than  when  the  first  hour  in  an  inn 
is  miserable  and  uncomfortable 

"  At  eleven  I  held  to  my  heart  a  brother  and  friend  of 
old  longings.  He  is  not  a  man  of  the  world,  Ijut  in  the 
most  precious  sense  a  quiet,  noble  ancient.  It  seems  to 
me  that  I  only  meet  him  again  after  long  separation,  we 
sympatliize  so  entirely ;  his  sisters  also  please  me.  In 
the  evening  they  usually  go  early  to  bed,  and  I  sit  alone 
with  Jacobi.  They  bid  me  not  to  suffer  him  to  speak 
much  of  his  childhood ;  but  often  as  we  have  been  to- 
gether, we  have  scarcely  begun  to  talk,  and  the  eternal 
conversation  upon  pliilosophy,  more  rarely  disputing  than 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  405 

agreeing,  will  leave  scarcely  room  for  questions  about  his 
early  life  and  former  connections.     He  seeks  earnestly, 

and  with  pure,  warm  zeal,  unestablished  truth In 

the  first  quarter  of  an  hour  he  observed  my  wavering 
playfulness  between  jest  and  earnest,  and  as  I  excused 
myself,  his  sisters  said, 'he  did  the  same  himself;  but 
he  does  not  appear  to  me  to  have  the  true  disposition  for 
humor,  and  he  said  himself  that  he  could  not  read  through 
the  Katzenhurger  and  the  Fibel.  He  is  always  calm,  not 
cold,  and  it  is  as  easy  to  him  to  speak  to,  to  listen  to,  and 
to  satisfy  his  enemies,  as  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  do  so. 

"  He  remained  till  midnight  alone  with  me,  and 
with  the  shadow  of  the  lamp-screen  resting  upon  his 
face,  speaking  softly,  and  yet  listening  to  the  mightiest 
themes. .  And  yet,  listen  !  He  will  give  my  earthly 
planet  a  new  impulse  around  his  higher  sun,  and  be  as 
much  to  me  as  Herder  was.  Yes,  more  than  Herder. 
Both  he  cannot  be  ;  and  yet,  alas !  my  religious  desires 
for  myself  can  be  fulfilled  by  no  man  from  without,  —  but 
only  from  within,  by  myself  alone.  '  Could  I  but  see 
him,'  I  have  hitherto  thought,  '  I  should  become  a  new 
man,  and  desire  nothing  more  ! '    Ah !  .  .  .  . 

"  He  can  be  from  morning  to  midnight  in  society,  en- 
joying visiting,  amusements,  and  driving,  while  I  remain, 
much  to  his  astonishment,  true  to  my  old  rules,  and,  in 
the  midst  of  the  most  animated  society,  escape  to  my  cool 
solitude  to  reproach  myself  after  exciting  amusements. 
As  I  asked  Jacobi  whetlier  I  did  not  carry  my  freedom 
too  far,  he  half  assented,  and  yet  in  such  a  way  that  I 
had  no  satisfaction  from  his  answer.  Besides,  he  con- 
siders too  much,  and  is  too  anxious  about  appearances, 
and  his  consideration  with  others,  and  indeed  ventures 
nothing.    Thus  he  earher  negatived  my  question,  whether 


4o6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

I  should  say  in  my  dedication  of  the  Claris  to  him,  '  that, 
he  had  read  it  before  its  publication,'  although  he  had. 
All  the  reviews  of  his  and  Schelling's  books,  as  well  as 
the  notice  of  them  in  the  Hamburg  newspaper,  he  carries 
neatly  folded  in  paper,  about  with  him  ;  in  all  he  is 
praised.  The  other  day,  in  Erlangen,  the  profess(Jrs  and 
we  all  had  drunk  his  health,  he  stood  up,  and  to  the 
amazement  of  all,  went  round  with  his  glass  and  touched 
that  of  every  one  at  the  table.  Something  of  this  belongs 
to  his  age,  and  to  the  four  female  hands  that  support  and 
rock  him.* 

"  He  wears  beautiful,  new-fashioned,  smooth,  white- 
topped  boots,  and  hosen  of  good  nankin  ;  and  a  gray  Rus- 
sian hat,  probably  on  account  of  his  eyes. 

"  That  he  loves  me  I  know  from  the  way  in  which  he 
takes  leave  of  me,  and  from  his  sisters,  and  from  his 
gentle  reproaches  if  I  do  not  go  to  him  in  the  intervals  of 
his  being  at  home  ;  but  how  much  he  blames  me,  either 
justly  or  unjustly  I  know  not.  He  speaks  often  of  his 
own  works ;  upon  my  personalities,  social  or  literary  rela- 
tions, he  asked  no  questions.  The  excess  of  our  materials 
for  conversation  was  my  fault,  and  yet  there  was  nothing 
said  of  worldly  affairs,  and  not  enough  of  Haman,  Goethe, 
and  Klopstock,  and  the  little  that  was  said  was  in  answer 
to  my  questions.  In  jjolitics  he  is  probably  liberal.  Tiie 
rest  when  we  meet." 

There  is  another  letter  of  the  same  date  to  his  old 
friend  Emanuel.  The  reader  will  recollect  that  he,  aa 
well  as  Otto,  were  Richter's  neighbors  in  Bayreuth. 

*  These  are  the  same  aunts  Lehiia  and  Lotta,  whose  excessive  care 
of  Jacobi  Beltine  describes  so  graphically  in  the  "  Correspondence  with 
a  Child." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  407 

"  Nurnberg,  1812. 

"  You  gave  me  only  one  token  of  remembrance,  namely, 
the  packed  coffer.  As  I  unfolded  paper  after  paper,  it 
seemed  as  if  you  spake  a  word  of  love  to  me  upon  each. 
It  is  a  half-melancholy  feeling  to  have  the  well-wishing 
love  of  an  absent  friend  before  one  in  solitude.  For  me 
a  solitary  apartment  is  a  spiritual  Briinning  hall,  full  of 
medicinal  water.  Solitude  shows  itself  in  new  relations  ; 
not  in  your  own  solitary  apartment  are  you  alone,  but  in 
a  melancholy  palace.  I  have,  ridiculously  as  it  sounds, 
every  day  a  little  perverseness,  a  little  contrariety  in 
thinking  and  acting.  I  write  every  morning  that  for 
which  in  practice  I  require  further  medicining. 

"  The  first  maxim  is  :  '  Do  everything  in  its  time,  put 
off  nothing  ! '  and  then  I  have  the  night  equipage  carried 
out  of  the  room,  but  I  leave  the  coffee  equipage  upon  the 
other  table. 

"  The  second  day  I  write  :  '  Rise  above  little  incon- 
veniences,' —  that  is,  do  not  croak  and  cry  alas  !  when  in 
the  morning  you  have  to  draw  your  shirt  on  or  off,  or 
even  your  narrow  Sunday  pantaloons  and  the  rest,  before 
you  can  sit  calmly  with  your  book  u2:)on  the  sofa. 

"  The  third  morning :  '  After  having  been  in  society, 
have  nothing  to  repent,  but  be  rather  too  fearful  than  too 
bold.'  For,  my  good  friend,  when  with  benevolent  inten- 
tion you  think  you  have  spoken  only  boldly,  then  you 
have  already  spoken  too  boldly,  and  the  previous  improve- 
ment is  to  be  every  day  recapitulated. 

"  '  Arm  yourself  as  powerfully  against  evil  in  others  as 
in  yourself  That  I  do  not  obey  this  rule  shows  itself  in 
my  continuing,  through  fancy,  to  blacken  myself  in  com- 
parison with  good  men.  In  short,  there  are  no  other 
means  in  heaven  or  upon  earth  to  heal  and  content  tlie 


408  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

inward  soul,  but  by  strengthening  that  inmost  soul  itself, 
and  it  is  foolish  to  think  small  helps  from  without  can  be 

lasting  means  of  improvement 

"  Solitude  on  one's  birthday  is  the  only  worthy  per- 
sonal celebration  that  a  man,  thinking  calmly  and  tenderly 
on  the  path  behind  him,  and  measuring  seriously  tha't  be- 
fore him,  can  permit  himself.  I  hate  also  all  business  or 
pleasurable  activity  on  the  first  day  of  the  year.  Frail 
and  feeble  man  should  look  upon  such  elevations  in 
time,  like  the  spider  for  props  to  which  he  fastens  the 
thread  of  a  new  web.  All  weighty  things  are  done  in 
soUtude,  that  is,  without  society.  The  means  of  improve- 
ment consist  not  in  projects,  or  in  any  violent  designs,  for 
these  cool,  and  cool  very  soon  ;  but  in  patient  practising 
for  -whole  long  days,  by  which  I  make  the  thing  dear  to 
my  highest  reason.  Reason  works  longer  than  feeling, 
and  enlightens  more,  for  it  remains  after  the  other  has 
departed.  We  must  first  overcome  the  little  faults,  and 
be  easy  in  this  exercise  of  self-conquest,  before  we  drive 
away  the  greater  ;  and  yet  after  all  this,  a  man  is  only  in 
the  outer  court  of  the  Most  Holy,  and  preparing  to  whip 
out  of  himself  the  whole  of  the  old  Adam ! 

"  R." 

The  peace,  so  ardently  desired  and  so  acceptable  to 
Germany,  was  at  first  disastrous  to  Richter.  Tiie  abol- 
ishing, by  the  congress  of  Vienna,  of  the  grand  duchy  of 
Frankfort,  and  taking  away  the  immense  revenue  of  the 
Prince  Primate  Dalberg,  interru])ted  tlie  payment  of  his 
pension  and  threatened  to  suspend  it  entirely.  It  re- 
mained undecided  for  two  years,  and  Jean  Paul  found 
himself  constrained  to  send  a  multitude  of  petitions  to 
persons  of  both  sexes  connected  with  the  congress  of 
Vienna  ;  among  others  to  the  Emperor  Alexander,  which 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  409 

both  his  biographers  have  given  at  large,  although  it 
seems  to  us  less  important  than  many  other  of  Paul's  pro- 
ductions. After  waiting  two  years  without  any  result,  he 
presented  a  petition  to  his  own  king  and  queen  of  Ba- 
varia, and  the  payment  henceforth  was  placed  on  the 
pension  fund  of  the  kingdom,  and  regularly  received  by 
Richter.  That  it  was  not  immediately  necessary  to  meet 
his  every-day  expenses  appears  from  a  note  written  to 
Otto,  on  the  Christmas  day  after  he  was  secure  of  the  first 
quarter's  payment.  All  his  readers  must  rejoice  that  a 
poet  had  money  to  lend. 

"  December  25,  1815. 

"  A  joyful  festival,  my  Otto.  Inform  me,  when  my  pen- 
sion-money comes,  whether  Emanuel  offers  to  take  a  part 
of  it  for  half  a  year.  Shall  I  not  give  him  too  much 
trouble,  or  can  he  even  use  it  ?  I  remark,  that,  when  men 
lend  money,- they  value  only  the  interest,  and  thereby 
become  cursedly  avaricious,  —  so  I  will  lend  little  and 
spend  more. 

"  I  bring  you  a  long-cherished  prayer.  My  purse  is 
open  to  you  at  all  times  and  for  any  sum  within  it.  Five 
hundred  florins  *  lie  wholly  useless  there  ;  so  that  I  de- 
serve nothing  by  the  change  to  youi'S,  except  indeed  the 

pleasure.     Enjoy  it  also,  old  heart's  friend. 

"  R." 

This  is  the  place  to  give  a  few  extracts  from  the  pri- 
vate journal  called  Via  recti,  which  was  begun  this  year, 
and  is  the  glass  in  which  we  see  the  man  and  the  author 
reflected.  He  says  in  the  beginning,  "  I  am  a  libertine 
only  from  within  ;  I  enjoy  neither  beer  nor  wine  ;  later,  I 
have  enjoyed  neither  company  nor  punch  ;  but  my  inward 

•  The  half  of  his  pension. 
18 


4IO  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

fantasies,  conceptions,  and  representations  have  reduced 
and  consumed  my  life.  I  say  here,  Tind  before  God,  that 
in  all  my  works,  and  in  all  my  representations,  I  am  pure 
from  all  but  the  best  motives,  uninfluenced  by  poverty, 
the  misunderstanding  of  others,  sacrifices,  etc.  ,1  have 
held  it  my  duty,  not  to  enjoy  or  to  gain,  but  to  write,  — 
however,  much  time  or  money  I  liave  thus  thrown  away, 
—  yes,  joy  also,  —  that  is,  the  sight  of  Switzerland,  which 
merely  the  sacrifice  of  time  forbade  !  I  deny  myself  mj 
vesper  meal,  merely  to  work  ;  but  I  cannot  deny  myself 
the  interruption  that  comes  from  my  children.  Eating, 
drinking,  money,  health,  are  nothing !  The  enjoyment  of 
my  children,  nature,  religion,  assert  their  mastery," 

Paul's  nephew  relates  many  beautiful  instances  of 
the  pleasant  intercourse  he  maintained  with  his  family. 
"  Could  one  see  him  when  the  longing  after  the  exchange 
of  endearing  expressions  drew  him  from  his  quiet  and 
solitary  study  into  the  apartment  of  his  wife.  In  his  eye 
was  a  sunbeam  of  the  purest  love,  while  the  loveliest 
smile  played  around  his  mouth  as  he  seemed  embaiTassed 
to  find  an  excuse  for  coming."  Then,  on  the  first  of 
April,  his  delight  in  the  innocent  mirth  tliat  belonged  to 
the  day.  He  would  mislead  every  one  of  his  family,  and 
the  maid  always  came  in  for  her  share  of  the  mirth. 

Paul  proceeds  with  his  rules. 

"■  Throw  little  pains  immediately  away. 

"  Have  nothing  to  repent  in  society  ;  be  rather  too 
fearful  than  too  bold. 

"  Show  love  only  to  children,  not  pain,  or  only  that 
which  will  excite  pity,  not  shame. 

"  Leave  a  good  but  passionate  man  time  to  resolve  and 
cool,  as  you  also  need  yourself. 

"  Say  not  at  tlie  first  moment.  No,  but  wait. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  411 

"  To  love  only  one  man  truly,  thorouglily !  what  enjoy- 
ment and  reward  ! 

"  Attempt  in  the  midst  of  woi-k  to  be  indifferent  to  com- 
plaints, disturbing  noises,  etc. 

"  One  should  strive  far  more  earnestly  to  gain  and 
secure  and  elevate  the  love  of  wife  and  children  than 
any  other  foreign  love ;  for  nothing  can  contribute  half  as 
much  to  the  happiness  of  life. 

"  I  will  give  to  the  children  the  morning  pleasures  of 
morning  hours.     I  can  later  work  and  read. 

"  Children  need  love  more  than  instruction  ;  and  use 
and  example  alone  can  give  it  them. 

"  As  Winkelman  set  apart  a  half-hour  daily  to  contem- 
plate his  Italian  joyousness,  a  man  should  consecrate  a 
half-hour  daily  or  weekly  to  reckoning  up  and  consid- 
ering the  virtues  of  his  wife  and  children,  and  nearest 
friends  ;  so  that  their  perfections  may  not  first,  at  their 
death,  press  together  to  a  burning  focus.  Often  enough, 
alas !  do  we  need  this  pressing  together,  namely,  after  an 
offence,  in  order  to  be  only  justly  angry,  and  reflect  all  his 
light  upon  the  offender. 

"  Place  in  imagmation  in  every  company  where  you 
speak  much  an  enemy  before  you  ;  a  satirist,  among  the 
enthusiastic  ;  a  spy,  among  lovers. 

"  Practise  every  day  an  acting  and  an  opposing  power, 
that  you  may  be  every  day  stronger  rather  than  weaker. 
Every  occasion  to  withstand  or  to  sacrifice  will  be  dear 
to  you,  without  which  you  will  never  succeed.  But  you 
need  only  to  make  use  of  the  daily,  —  go  not  out  of  your 
way  to  seek  sacrifices. 

"  With  all  my  inclination  to  irony  upon  paper,  I  have 
never  in  actual  life,  neither  alone  nor  in  company,  made 
a  man  ridiculous,  but  have  answered  his  weakness  with 
sympathizing  earnestness." 


412  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

In  the  same  book  Paul  says :  "  Nothing  exhausts  and 
touches  me  as  fantasien  on  the  piano.  I  could  thus  kill 
myself.  All  buried  feelings  and  spirits  arise  again !  My 
hand  and  eye  and  heart  know  no  limits  !  At  last  I  close 
with  an  eternally  returning,  but  too  powerful  tone !  One 
can  be  satisfied  with  hearing,  but  never  with  making  mu- 
sic ;  and  every  true  musician  could,  like  tlie  nightingales, 
trill  liimself  to  death.  When  I  have  fantasied  long,  I 
break  out  into  violent  weeping,  without  tliinking  of  any- 
thing decidedly  melancholy.  The  tones  cut  deeper  and 
clearer  into  ear  and  heart.  Tears  are  my  strongest,  but 
most  weakening  intoxication ! 

"  No  author  can  foresee  the  influence  his  works  will 
have  either  for  good  or  for  evil,  for  tliey  excite  every 
species  of  mind,  and  kindle  the  inflammable. 

"  I  could  become  a  great  author  Avith  Hei'der's  powers 
and  my  own  application  of  the  same." 


^^^^^S 


CHAPTER    V. 


EicnTER  IN  Relation  with  the  Unhappy. 

FOKSTER. 


Letters.  —  Maria 


E  come  now  to  a  trait  of  Richter's  a.  d.  1814, 
character  that  we  can  dwell  upon  -^^^  °^- 
with  unmixed  satisfaction,  —  his  relations  with 
the  unfortunate  and  unhappy  who  sought  his 
sympathy  or  advice.  There  is  no  author  who  lives  so 
entirely  in  his  own  creations  as  Richter.  He  himself 
speaks  from  the  lips  of  his  characters,  and  gives  his 
readers  consolation  or  pity,  elevation  or  lofty  trust.  He 
steps  before  every  heart  and  shows  it  its  inmost  wishes ; 
he  lifts  the  veil  of  secrecy  under  which  it  sighs,  and 
shows  tlie  reader  that  he  knows  and  pities  all  that  lies 
struggling  or  perplexed  within  him.  He  had  expe- 
rienced deeply  in  his  youth  that  feeling  of  heart-solitude 
that  weighs  heavily  upon  minds  of  sensibility,  and  he 
offers  in  his  works  sympathy  and  aid  against  this  fret- 
ting sorrow.  He  had  felt  how  easy,  and  yet  how  dan- 
gerous it  is  to  take  the  fii-st  wrong  step  in  life,  while  he 
knew  how  to  draw  lessons  of  wisdom  from  the  reaction 
of  error  or  folly.  This  distinguisliing  characteristic  of 
Jean  Paul  made  him  the  personal  friend  of  his  readers, 
the  brother  and  the  father  of  all  orphaned  and  widowed 
hearts.     By  his  expanding  and  never-wearied  sympathy 


414  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

he  responded  to  every  confidence  that  was  placed  in  him, 
and  showed  the  beautiful  harmony  of  the  author  with  the 
man,  and  the  power  of  a  true  Christian  brother  in  heal- 
ing and  calming  the  soul.  How  many  came  to  him  with 
bowed  or  broken  hearts ;  how  many  in  the  midst  of  the 
storm  of  passion  sought  his  counsel  and  his  help  1  He 
■was  trusted  with  the  most  delicate  and  important  se- 
crets by  women  of  all  ranks,  from  princesses  to  domestic 
drudges.  Men  and  youths  also  appealed  to  him  to  de- 
cide affairs  that  concerned  their  entire  lives.  Repentant 
sinners  sought  consolation  in  a  confession  to  him  ;  and  in 
some  cases  he  was  employed  to  make  reparation,  where  a 
breath  or  a  whisper  would  have  tarnished  tlie  honor  of 
the  parties. 

He  answered  with  unwearied  patience  the  letters  of 
young  authors,  and  their  petitions  for  his  jiulgment  upon 
their  literary  works.  He  read  them  patiently,  criticised 
delicately,  and  where  he  could  he  gave  encouragement. 
His  sympathy  aTid  help,  even  if  he  could  not  give  a  faxor- 
able  judgment  of  the  work,  were  never  withheld  from  the 
author.  Thus,  while  he  dwelt  at  Meiningen  he  obtained, 
through  his  sole  exertions,  the  office  of  cabinet  secretary 
to  the  Duke  for  Ernest  AVagner.  He  obtained  also  a 
situation  for  Kanne,  the  afterwards  well-known  enthusi- 
astic preacher,  whose  supernaturalism  and  mysticism,  alas  ! 
brought  Richter's  only  son  to  his  grave. 

We  have  only  room  for  a  few  of  the  answers  Richter 
sent  to  those  \xho  sought  his  advice  and  sympatliy.  The 
first  is  in  answer  to  a  querulous  letter  from  a  young  man, 
who  writes  under  the  name  of  Henrich,  and  which  is  filled 
with  general  complaints  at  his  unhappy  destiny. 

"  Dare  not  to  judge  from  one  year  of  unhappiness  the 
Eternal,  who  has  shown  his  paternal  care  of  mankind  for 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  415 

six  thousand  years,  and  is  tlie  same  great  Father  of  all. 
He  who  has  supported,  formed,  and  educated  the  human 
race  will  not  desert  one,  even  the  least.  Of  the  smallest 
ephemera  of  a  day  his  providence  has  protected  the  race 
from  Adam  to  us.  Let  your  heart  be  tender,  but  your 
breast  strong,  and  struggle  and  hope  at  the  same  time." 

The  next  is  a  person  of  a  higher  order  of  mind,  who 
sent  him  several  letters,  and  at  last  a  journal  of  his  life. 
As  the  letters  were  anonymous,  they  were  thrown  into 
the  general  receptacle  of  unanswered  letters.  At  last 
another  despairing  letter  was  sent,  that  hinted  at  suicide. 
Eiohter  sought,  and  soon  discovered  his  name,  and  wrote 
to  him  the  next  day. 

"  Wherefore  have  you  not  trusted  yourself  more  gener- 
ously to  me  ?  My  silence  upon  your  letters,  so  filled  with 
mind  and  heart,  was  owing  principally  to  the  fact  that 
such  letters  must  be  answered  not  with  lines,  but  with 
sheets ;  and  that  for  most  of  the  letters  I  receive  I  have 
not  time  even  for  lines.  The  letter  previous  to  your 
journal  covered  my  horizon  with  a  thick  cloud,  through 
the  suspicion  of  a  misfortune  to  yourself;  but  your  journal 
dispersed  the  cloud,  and  gave  me  again  the  sun.  To  an 
immediate  answer,  nothing  failed  me  but  the  name,  which 
I  hoped  to  find  in  the  first  letter,  —  but  behold  that  was 
buried  in  the  great  letter-vault,  where,  with  a  thousand 
others,  it  awaited  the  resurrection,  —  that  is,  arrangement 
and  order.  But  the  first  grasp  in  the  coffer  drew  forth 
your  fii'St  letter,  like  a  roll  of  destiny.  I  should  wish 
and  advise  you  more  action  and  less  reflection  ;  but,  if  we 
cannot  discover  the  character  of  an  author  from  many 
books,  how  much  less  the  character  of  a  letter-writer 
from  a  few  pages ;  and  how  ditficult  it  is,  even  after  a 
long  acquaintance,  to  give  comprehensive  counsels,  that 


4l6  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

shall  embrace  the  whole  of  life.  Against  your  overvalue 
of  myself  I  have  nothing  to  say.  To  the  youth  it  is 
always  more  healthful  to  reverence  too  much  than  to 
despise  too  much.  You  have  a  pair  of  gods  too  many, 
but  a  divinity  too  little.  Trust  yourself,  or  rather  the 
universal  soul,  more.  There  will  fall  to  you  yet  tnany 
of  the  blossoms  of  youth.  Thrust  out  the  invisible  fruit- 
buds  of  your  soul,  and  as  a  man  you  will  profit  by  the 
ripened  fruit.  Flee  only  the  demon  of  ambition,  and  the 
wild  ape  *  of  vanity,  and  you  will  be  reconciled  with  the 
angel  of  the  good  and  the  beautiful." 

Among  other  communications  to  him  was  the  autobi- 
ography of  a  man  who  possessed  the  fixed  idea  that  his 
thoughts,  by  the  medium  of  animal  magnetism,  were  ab- 
stracted from  his  mind  and  used  by  other  people.  At  the 
same  time,  the  same  person  desired  Richter  to  petition 
the  Emperor  Francis  for  a  present  of  not  less  than  twenty 
thousand  dollars,  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  the  leisure  to 
write  an  epic  poem.  In  the  mean  time,  he  prayed  Rich- 
ter to  advance  two  thousand  dollars,  that  he  would  repay 
Avhen  he  received  the  twenty  thousand  from  the  emperor. 

Another  letter,  from  another  person,  demanded  that 
Paul  should  petition  the  allied  sovereigns  of  Europe  to 
free  Napoleon  from  his  imprisonment  at  St.  Helena.  To 
such  absurd  requests  he  gave  of  course  no  answer. 

But  I  will  leave  these  common  instances,  to  mention 
only  one  other,  that  threw  a  cloud  over  Richter's  life,  and 
was  the  occasion  of  an  almost  repentant  sorrow.  The 
history  of  the  young  girl,  who  knit  her  being  so  closely 
to  his  that  she  could  not  live  without  him,  seems  to  us,  in 
this  prosaic  land  and  age,  so  like  a  fiction  of  romance,  as 
to  be  almost  incredible  in  its  sad  reality.    She  liad  known 

*    Wdldteufel  is  also  the  name  of  a  butterfly. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  417 

him  only  through  his  books ;  and  what  to  others  is  but  an 
abstraction,  became  to  her  the  life  of  her  soul. 

This  has  been  mentioned  as  a  parallel  case  to  that  of 
Bettine  Brentano,  whose  eccentric  letters  and  journal 
have  revealed  to  us  her  youthful  passion  for  Goethe. 
But  the  cases  are  quite  dissimilar.  Bettine  was  living 
in  the  midst  of  the  refined  society  where  Goethe  ruled, 
and  her  glowing  imagination  converted  him  into  a  Di- 
vinity, to  be  worshipped  and  loved.  Bettine  had  more 
imagination  than  sentiment  or  passion,  and  required  of 
Goethe  to  understand  and  appreciate  her  rare  intellect  as 
much  as  answer  to  her  heart.  Unfortunately,  Goethe  was 
afraid  of  the  ridicule  that  would  attend  such  a  friendship, 
and  wounded  her  vanity  as  well  as  her  womanly  sensi- 
tiveness. 

Maria  Forster  was  living  in  solitude,  in  the  midst  of 
sublime  mountain  scenery.  She  had  no  one  to  sympa- 
thize with  her  passionate  nature.  She  brooded  in  silence 
over  her  communion  with  Jean  Paul,  when  she  found  her 
most  secret  thoughts,  and  her  own  nature  revealed  to  her 
in  his  books.  To  passion  and  sentiment  was  united  a 
sensitive  conscience  and  feminine  delicacy,  and  we  cannot 
read  her  history  without  the  sorrowful  conviction,  that 
before  she  came  to  the  resolution  to  throw  herself  into 
the  Rhine,  the  contest  between  passion  and  conscience 
had  destroyed  the  healthful  action  of  her  reason. 

Maria  was  the  daughter  of  a  high-hearted  German,  who 
fell  under  the  axe  of  the  guillotine  during  the  reign  of 
terror  in  Paris.  The  heroic  death  of  the  father,  who 
despised  the  means  of  flight  that  were  held  out  to  him  by 
his  friends,  and  the  instructions  of  an  equally  high-minded 
mother,  had  increased  the  original  tendency  of  the  daugh- 
ter's mind  to  enthusiasm,  and  given  her  an  inclination  to 

18*  AA 


4l8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

solitude,  wliere  she  lived  in  an  ideal  world,  peopled  only 
with  heroes  of  the  ancient  world  and  those  among  the 
moderns  who  were  worthy  to  enter  there.  Yet  she  de- 
voted herself  with  exact  fidelity  to  all  filial  and  domestic 
duties,  and  did  not  avoid  the  society  about  her.  She 
rejoiced  with  the  gay  and  wept  with  the  sorrowful ;  but 
when  her  work  was  done,  when  the  cares  of  the  day  were 
over,  when  the  hours  of  darkness  gave  the  choice  of  re- 
freshment through  sleep,  or  by  communion  with  other 
minds,  then  she  turned  with  ecstasy  to  her  books,  and 
drew  from  her  favorite  authors  not  only  healthy  food, 
but  the  intoxication  that,  in  her  solitude,  and  with  her 
peculiar  temperament,  became  poison  to  her  mind. 

Already,  in  her  tenth  year,  she  became  acquainted  with 
the  writings  of  Jean  Paul,  and  in  her  innocent,  childish 
enthusiasm  wrote  him  a  letter.  As  she  entered  woman- 
hood, he  became  the  ideal  of  all  that  was  dreamed  or 
imagined.  He  was  the  only  living  mortal  that  was  ad- 
mitted into  her  ideal  world ;  the  purest  and  holiest  of 
men,  a  saint,  "  a  new  Christ  for  her,"  who  could  alone 
bear  her  over  the  waves  of  life,  that  threatened  i-ight  and 
left  to  overwhelm  her.  To  be  near  him  in  some  foi-m, 
or  in  some  relation,  was  the  only  contingency  in  which 
she  could  find  peace.  To  hold  some  kind  of  communion 
with  him  was  a  necessity  of  her  nature.  She  must  speak 
to  him,  or  she  must  die. 

Accordingly,  in  her  thirteenth  year,  .she  wrote  to  him 
thus  :  "  Is  it  not  too  bold,  —  dare  I  write  to  the  dearest 
friend  of  man,  and  call  him  my  father  ?  Ah,  I  shall  per- 
haps never  see  him  whom  I  have  to  thank  for  so  much, 
for  the  dearest  benefits,  the  most  elevated  truths,  —  all  the 
good  that  excites  my  imitation,  and  a  whole  eternity  that 
has  opened  before  my  soul.    When  I  think  of  }our  infinite 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  419 

goodness,  I  burst  into  tears,  and  my  heart  is  filled  with 
blessings  for  you.  This  firm  faith  in  you  is  a  blessing 
of  which  no  man  can  rob  me. 
*  "  You  will  ask,  perhaps,  who  it  is  that  speaks  thus 
boldly  to  you  ?  But  I  am  only  a  little  girl,  —  too  little 
that  I  need  to  mention  my  name.  Ah,  were  I  gi'own,  as 
I  shall  be,  no  land  and  no  sea  should  prevent  me  from 
once  in  my  life  seeing  him  who  has  long  held  the  place 
of  a  father  in  my  heart.  But  my  own  faults  and  inter- 
vening relations  hold  me  back ;  and  I  would  not  trust 
myself  to  write  one  word  to  you  if  I  did  not  hope  to  de- 
serve your  indulgence  and  pardon  for  my  wishes. 

"  I  scarcely  have  a  wish  but  the  highest,  to  be  so  good 
as  to  deserve  your  esteem,  and  the  joy  of  having  you  once 
call  me  daughter.  My  whole  life  is  only  a  striving  after 
goodness  ;  and  yet,  O  father !  wherefore  does  it  go  so 
slowly  forwards  ?  It  is  gi'ievous  that  for  me  it  is  only 
goodness  ;  that  I  am  only  true  and  honest.*  But  I  will 
not  burden  you  with  my  faults." 

Maria  continued  to  write,  and  closed  every  letter  with 
her  ardent  ^vish  to  go  to  Eichter.  The  first  portion  of 
her  correspondence  only  expressed  a  wish  for  a  spiritual 
union  with  Jean  Paul,  and  a  meeting  in  that  future  world 
for  which  he  had  prepared  her  soul ;  but  at  length  her 
letters  betrayed  her  longing  to  be  near  him,  her  impa- 
tience for  a  more  intimate  union.  But  now  her  eyes 
were  opened,  and  it  was  as  if  she  had  touched  the  god- 
like with  sacrilegious  hands.  In  bitter  repentance  and 
tears  she  wrote  the  next  day  a  letter,  with  her  name,  in 
which  she  endeavored  to  soften  the  impatience  of  the 
first,  and  to  recall  the  contents  of  the  postscript,  but  in 
fact  repeating  them  both.     A  third  and  fourth  letter  fol- 

*  She  means  to  say  that  she  has  no  talent. 


420  LIFE    OF  JEAN    PAUL. 

lowed  in  quick  succession,  in  which  she  strove  in  vain  to 
conceal  the  conflict  that  devoured  her  whole  moral  nature, 
and  Avhile  she  prayed  him  to  forget  lier,  she  still  held  fast 
the  hope  of  being  admitted  into  his  family. 

Now  she  waited  with  burning  impatience  for  an  answer. 
She  could  not  reckon  the  distance,  the  interruption  6f  the 
post  by  the  warlike  condition  of  the  country,  the  literary 
labors  of  her  friend,  or  the  many  possibilities  that  lie  be- 
tween the  reception  and  the  answer  to  a  letter.  One 
only  idea  took  possession  of  her  mind,  —  the  thought  of 
being  despised  by  the  most  beloved  of  men ;  and  to  find 
contempt  where  she  had  looked  for  healing  and  sympathy 
was  too  intolerable  to  be  borne,  and  this  infant,  as  she 
was  in  years  and  experience,  could  find  no  peace  except 
in  death. 

In  the  twilight  of  a  May  morning  she  sought  the  river, 
and  there,  to  make  her  resolution  doubly  sure,  she  placed 
a  knife  in  her  bosom.  She  looked  round  on  the  home 
where  her  mother  still  slept,  which  the  first  rays  of  the 
sun  was  just  touching  with  splendor,  and  the  thought  of 
the  inconsolable  sorrow  of  her  widowed  mother  made  her 
waver  in  her  purpose,  and  her  sister,  who  had  been  a 
witness  of  the  despairing  night  Maria  had  passed,  and 
had  followed  her  without  betraying  the  cause  of  her  fear- 
ful anticipations,  arrested  her,  and  saved  her  from  her 
despair.  They  walked  home  in  silence,  and  Maria  re- 
solved that  while  her  mother  lived  she  would  never 
leave  her. 

But  at  last  the  expected  letter  arrived  from  Richter, 
and  here  it  is. 

"  Your  four  letters  from  a  good  but  over-excilcd  heart 
have  been  received.  I  guessed  the  name,  and  so  did  a 
friend  of  mine,  in  the  first  hour.     Your  noble,  departed 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  421 

father  is  worthy  of  so  good  a  daughter.  But  as  the  earth 
did  not  reward  liim,  may  he  now,  Avlien  he  looks  down 
upon  his  daughter,  be  rewarded  by  seeing  her  full  of  a 
pure  ardor  for  goodness  and  virtue.  He  would  speak  to 
her  thus  :  '  May  a  good  man  receive  my  dear  Maria  as  a 
daughter,  and  be  to  her  a  spiritual  father.  lie  will  calm 
her  excitement  Avith  a  kindness  and  indulgence  that  can- 
not be  imagined ;  he  will  tell  her  that  in  actual  life, 
especially  in  marriage,  the  strength  of  passion  in  women, 
even  innocent  violence,  has  been  the  thorns  and  daggers 
upon  which  happiness  has  fallen  and  bled  ;  that  the 
mightiest  and  holiest  of  men,  even  Christ,  was  all  gen- 
tleness, mildness,  and  peace.  He  will  tell  her  she  may 
soar  with  the  wings  of  the  spirit,  but  with  the  outward 
limbs  must  she  only  walk.  She  may  kindle  a  holy  fire 
in  her  heart,  but  must  not  act  till  the  fire  has  become  a 
pure  light  to  guide  her.  I  also,  who  speak  to  you  in  the 
name  of  your  own  father,  desire  such  for  my  dear  Maria, 
and  will  be  that  father  to  her. 

"Your  dream  to  come  to  me,  you  have,  on  awaking, 
laid  aside.  Leave  your  mother  ?  Never  !  I  shall  more 
probably  go  to  you  than  you  come  here.  I  and  my  wife 
both  love  you,  and  greet  you  kindly.  Remain  always 
good,  my  daughter.  i,  p  ,, 

Maria  received  the  handwriting  of  Richter  with  floods 
of  tears,  before  she  looked  within  the  letter  for  consolation 
and  hope.  She  answered  gratefully,  and  sent  him,  at  the 
same  time,  the  letter  she  had  written  the  night  before 
that  frightful  May  morning,  when  slie  had  entreated  him 
to  look  upon  her  as  one  departed,  who  could  not  endure 
to  live  imder  the  thought  of  his  contempt. 

Richter  was  shocked  and  alarmed  at  the  recklessness 


422  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

to  -nliich  the  choice  between  life  and  death  seemed  so 
easy.  His  own  peace  was  endangered  as  well  as  Maria's 
happiness,  and  he  wrote  again  with  true  paternal  ear- 
nestness. 

"  Dear  Maria  :  The  abundance  of  what  I  have  to 
say  to  you,  of  which  much  should  go  only  from  the  lips 
to  the  ear,  and  my  want  of  time,  have  delayed  my  an- 
swers to  your,  last  letters.  The  first  that  you  wrote  to 
me  after  my  answer  has  shaken  me  more  than  any  calam- 
ity for  many  years ;  for  had  it  not  been  for  an  apparent 
accident,  you  would  have  thrown  a  frightful  death-shadow 
over  the  whole  of  my  future  life.  You  should  see  my 
coffer  of  letters,  of  which  at  the  best  I  have  not,  for  want 
of  time,  answered  one  sixth  part,  and  between  me  and 
my  best  friends  there  is  often  a  delay  of  months.  Your 
first  four  letters  truly  animated  me.  I  saw  in  them  only 
a  rare  exalted  love,  and  a  glowing  soul,  but  not  a  single 
line  unwortliy  of  you  or  of  me,  and  I  answered  them  with 
more  interest  and  joy  than  I  usually  express.  You  de- 
manded the  answers  only  too  hastily,  too  punctually. 
Might  I  then  not  have  journeyed,  or  been  sick,  or  dead, 
or  absent,  or  engaged  in  business  ?  The  fearful  step  that 
you  would  on  that  account  have  taken  I  must,  notwith- 
standing the  greatness  of  mind  it  betra3S,  condemn  most 
severely !  —  but  never  let  there  be  mention  of  it  between 
us.  Besides,  I  wish  you  on  your  own  account,  and  on 
mine,  to  show  my  two  letters  to  your  good  mother,  whose 
most  painful  sorrows  I  well  know  how  to  imagine.  You 
think  much  too  well  of  me  as  a  man.  No  author  can  be 
as  moral  as  his  works,  as  no  preacher  is  as  pious  as  his 
sermons.  Write  to  me  in  future  very  often  all  that  is 
nearest  your  heart,  either  of  joy  or  sorrow.     You  will 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  423 

thus  relieve  yoiu'  mind  of  what  rests  upon  it.  You  have 
become,  by  a  peculiar  bond,  more  luiit  to  my  life  than 
any  other  absent  acquaintance :  only  draw  not  false  con- 
clusions from  my  long  silence.  Very  delightful  to  me 
will  be  our  first  meeting.  May  you  be  happy,  my  child ; 
may  these  apparently  only  slightly  and  calmly  written 
words  rejoice,  and  not  confuse  or  wound  your  heart. 
"  Your  father,  ,,  ^  „ 

After  the  reception  of  tliis  letter  peace  returned  to  the 
heart  of  Maria,  but  only  for  a  short  time  ;  the  arrow  had 
entered  deeply,  and  the  wound  would  not  heal.  In  the 
fatal  hour  that  she  resolved  on  self-destruction  she  imag- 
ined that  her  inclination  was  more  than  a  childish  rever- 
ence, that  it  demanded  a  warmer  love  than  that  of  a 
father,  and  on  this  account  she  resolved  never  to  see 
Richter,  and  bound  hei'self  with  a  sacred  vow  never  to 
indulge  the  wish  of  meeting.     She  wrote  to  him :  — 

"  The  only  honorable  way  that  can  lead  me  to  the 
heart  for  which  I  so  long  is  the  grave.  You  will  never 
be  seen  by  me  on  this  earth,  for  I  love  you  too  much  ; 
therefore,  write  to  me  something  consoling  ;  tell  the  poor 
Maria  that  you  will  love  her  when  we  meet  beyond  this 
world.  She  can  think  of  no  joy  in  heaven,  if  there,  as 
here,  she  is  divided  from  the  only  soul  through  which  she 
lives. 

"  Never  again  write  me  a  letter  so  full  of  wisdom  as 
the  fii'St,  but  rather  one  in  which  there  is  nothing  but  a 
lock  of  your  hair  ;  and-  be  assured  I  will  not  cease  to 
write  till  you  tell  me  you  have  sent  it  willingly,  and  your 
good  wife,  also,  for  I  deserve  it,  and  would  give  half  my 
hopes  of  happiness  for  it. 

"  I  have  no  greeting  for  you  from  my  mother,  highly 


424  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

as  she  esteems  Jean  Paul,  as  neither  she,  nor  any  one 
knows  to  whom  I  write,  nor  anything  of  the  whole  his- 
tory. For,  as  she  asked  me  at  that  time  '  wherefore  I 
would  tear  myself  from  her,'  I  promised  her  never  to 
leave  her  if  she  would  ask  me  no  questions.  She  cannot 
know  how  resolute  I  am.  nor  yet  again  how  unreseri'ed, 
and  that  it  is  my  dearest  happiness  that  Jean  Paul  has 
taken  me  for  his  adopted  child.  Ah,  my  father,  love  me 
only  and  be  happy." 

Richter  sent  the  desired  lock  of  hair  and  wrote :  — 

"  Dear  Maria  :  The  lock  that  my  wife  has  cut  from  my 
bald  pate  is  the  best  answer  to  your  last  letter.  Be  not 
anxious,  I  pray  you,  that  T  shall  let  your  letters,  written 
as  they  will,  be  misunderstood  to  your  disadvantage.  I 
understand  your  warm,  idealizing  heart  and  its  great 
pcfwer ;  how  then  shall  the  words  of  a  moment  make  me 
err  ?  What  I  complain  of  is,  that  the  sun-heat  of  your 
mind  ripens  too  soon,  or  rather  scorches  and  dries  up  its 
sweet  fruit.  Your  vow  never  to  see  me  comes  to  nothing, 
(now  comes  sermonizing,  which  you  have  forbidden.)  for 
in  the  first  place,  one  cannot  vow  for  others  ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, we  vow  only  to  do  what  is  good  and  leave  the 
bad ;  and  tliis  vow  we  bring  with  us  into  the  world  in  the 
form  of  conscience,  and  no  newer  oath  can  contradict  it. 
Another  thing ;  to  swear  to  avoid  a  certain  city,  or  a 
certain  man,  without  reason,  is  to  seek  to  control  Provi- 
dence :  and,  finally,  your  vow  does  not  extend  to  me,  and 
I  sliall  see  you  whenever  I  can.  No,  I  paint  to  myself 
the  hour  when  you  will  first  see  my  Caroline  and  my 
children,  and  then  me,  and  I  shall  also  see  all  your 
friends. 

"  Dear  good  Maria,  you  are  the  only  invisible  corre- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  425 

spondent  to  whom  I  write  so  unreservedly,  and  send  my 
hair.  Could  I  do  it  if  I  had  not  so  much  esteem  for  you, 
and  so  much  confidence  that  you  would  do  much  more 
for  me  than  I  deserve  or  can  ever  repay  ?  Would  you 
only  not  err  when  from  business  or  necessity  I  am  silent 
to  your  Jetters.  Do  not  torment  yourself,  for  your  pain 
is  doubled  in  me.     Your  father,  .,  -^ 

"  P.  S.  I  have  much  cause  to  wish  that  you  should 
tell  all  to  your  mother  and  sister,  and  find  in  their  confi- 
dential love  no  occasion  for  opposition." 

The  result  of  this,  perhaps,  too  kind  and  tender  letter 
was  far  otherwise  than  Richter  expected.  The  words  so 
gently  admonitory  sank  like  poison  drops  into  Maria's 
heart.  "  He  loves  me,"  she  cried,  "  he  will  seek  me  ! 
He  suifers  on  my  account."  Again  the  hope,  the  desire 
to  see  him  grew  to  madness,  and  yet  the  veil  of  holy 
innocence  lay  upon  her,  and  the  fear  that  she  had  passed 
the  limits  of  womanly  delicacy  and  reserve  distracted  her. 

Richter  observed,  with  deep  anxiety,  the  conflicting 
tempest  in  her  soul,  —  but  he  wrote  no  more.  Then 
light  flashed  into  her  mind  ;  she  saw  her  error,  and  with 
heart-breaking  i-epentance  she  wrote  to  him,  promising  to 
be  again  only  a  child,  —  a  loving  child,  and  nothing  more. 
Then  he  wrote  to  her  thus  :  "  I  have  received  your  last 
six  letters  regularly,  but  not  always  actually  without  the 
seals  broken.*  ....  Your  last  three  letters  were  wel- 
come to  me,  as  they  again  beautifully  spake  of  the  oidy 
possible  relation  that  can  exist  between  us,  that  of  a 
father  and  daughter.  A  relation  in  wliich  your  first  let- 
ters enchanted  me,  and  which  has  hitherto  remained  un- 

*  Richter  wished  her  to  understand  that  her  letters  were  inspected 
in  passing  througii  the  post-ofBce. 


4-26  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

changed  on  my  part.  In  this  relation  alone  I  ventured 
to  love  you  so  deeply,  to  send  you  the  lock  of  my  hair,  to 
give  you  my  confidence,  and  to  oppose  your  incompre- 
hensible scruples  to  our  meeting.  The  word  father  is  for 
a  father,  no  less  than  the  word  daughter,  a  sacred  and 
holy  word.     Dearer  than  all  other  words  !  ^ 

"  Why  do  you  imagine  me  troubled  ?  I  am  happy  with 
my  children  and  my  Caroline,  and  as  truly  beloved  by 
them  as  they  are  by  me.  The  sciences  are  my  heaven. 
"Wliy  then  should  I  be  unhappy,  except  at  these  disastrous 
times  when  all  the  nations  of  Europe  bleed  ? 

"  Your  unreserve  gives  me  no  pain,  at  least,  unless  you 
feel  it  yourself;  on  the  contrary,  it  gives  me  only  joy. 
You  idolize  me  too  much  instead  of  following  my  coun- 
sels. I  shall,  therefore,  offer  you  no  more  advice,  so 
well  do  I  know  the  female  heart,  especially  the  souls  of 
fire  to  which  you  belong.  Send  me,  instead  of  letters 
that  I  have  not  time  to  answer,  rather  journals  of  your 
life,  your  family,  your  little  experiences. 

"  May  it  be  well  with  you,  dear  daughter,  and  the 
gentle  spirit  of  love,  without  that  of  fire,  fill  your  breast. 

"R." 

Maria's  self-tormenting  spirit  now  assumed  another 
form.  The  image  of  the  best  and  most  beloved  of 
men,  as  it  dwelt  in  her  heart,  had  been  profaned,  and 
to  restore  herself  to  him  demanded  an  expiation.  No 
sacrifice  was  too  great,  and  she  would  have  thrown  off 
the  burden  of  lite  had  not  her  promise  to  her  suffering 
mother  restrained  lier.  But  the  mother  died,  and  Maria 
Avas  free.  Anotlier  care  restrained  her,  the  solitary  and 
beloved  orphan  sister.  But  at  this  time  an  old  friend  of 
the  family  returned,  unexpectedly,  after  a  long  absence, 
and  took  the  orphan  sister  under  his  protection.     He  was 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  427 

an  honest,  firm,  and  benevolent  man,  and  Maria  could 
safely  trust  her  sister's  happiness  to  his  keeping. 

Now  she  could  go  to  the  beloved,  and  fall  at  his  feet, 
and  ask  again  to  be  his  daughter.  No !  the  meeting  she 
desu-ed  must  be  for  anotlier  world,  where  there  can  exist 
none  hut  spiritual  relations. 

The  domestic  affairs  of  her  friend  and  sister  were  all 
arranged ;  every  minute  care  taken  for  their  comfort ;  all 
her  duties  scrupulously  performed,  and  now  that  the  aim 
of  her  wishes  was  reached,  she  wrote  to  Richter. 

"  Do  not  be  angry,  dearest  father,  at  receiving  these 
lines  from  your  unfortunate  Maria.  My  mother  has  been 
two  months  dead,  and  she  will  consent  that  I  shall  now 
follow  her.  She  wislied  me  to  take  care  of  my  sister, 
—  that  is  done.  Her  happiness  is  secure,  and  I  can  no 
longer  endure  to  live,  where  mine  has  so  incomprehen- 
sibly failed.  All !  in  the  great  universe  of  God  there 
will  yet  be  a  place  where  I  can  recover  my  peace,  and 
be  as  I  wish.  I  have  suffered  so  much  !  I  dare  to  die  ! 
Ah,  you  will  despise  me  as  long  as  I  live,  for  you  will 
never  understand  how  I  have  languished  to  do  something 
for  you,  or  for  those  dear  to  you,  and  how  much  the 
thought  has  killed  me,  when  I  learnt  that  I  could  not 
make  you  happy.  But  despise  me  not  so  much,  as  not 
to  let  your  children,  of  whom  I  cannot  think  without 
tears,  accept  a  little  present  from  me.  Let  them  not 
know  from  whom  it  came.  I  would  willingly  be  wholly 
forgotten,  and  unmarked  vanish  away.  No  one  can  learn 
my  history  from  myself.  I  have  burnt  all  books  and 
journals.  Your  hair  only  remains  on  my  neck,  and  1 
take  it  with  me.  Farewell,  beloved  father  !  Ah,  that  it 
must  be  so  with  me  !  Oh  that  it  were  all  a  dream,  and 
I  had  never  written  to  you  !     My  unfortunate  spirit  will 


428  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

hover  about  you.  Perhaps  I  shall  be  permitted  to  give 
you  a  sign,  or  to  bring  you  some  higher  knowledge." 

Together  with  Maria's  letter,  Richter  received  one  from 
the  friend  already  mentioned,  giving  an  account  of  her 
death. 

"  The  letter  of  Maria  which  you  will  receive  with  this 
will  leave  no  doubt  of  her  sad  fate.  What  to  us  is  a  dark 
riddle  will  find  perliaps  with  you,  who  knew  the  unfortu- 
nate better  than  we  did,  a  clear  solution.  She  had  long 
desired  that  death  should  come  to  her  accidentally.  But 
in  vain.  How  often  she  inhaled,  but  without  effect,  tlie 
poisonous  breath  of  pestilence.  A  thousand  times  she 
stretched  herself  upon  the  sick  couch  of  the  dying,  and 
pressed  her  cheek  ujion  that  of  death ;  but  the  jjoisoned 
aiTOw  touched  her  not,  and  no  bloom  faded  from  her  youth- 
ful cheek.  Then  came  May  again,  with  its  dark  recol- 
lections from  the  past  year ;  but  Maria  was  apparently 
happy,  with  a  festive  and  wild  gayety  alternating  with 
earnest  and  cheerful  calmness.  On  the  fatal  day  she 
read  and  wrote,  and  prepared  the  evening  meal  for  the 
friend  and  her  sister.  She  covered  the  table,  and  ful- 
filled with  graceful  attention,  the  duties  of  a  kind  hostess. 
She  rose  from  table  to  write  a  letter,  and  at  about  eight 
o'clock  asked  her  sister  to  sit  down  with  their  friend  at 
the  piano,  and  embraced  her  at  the  same  moment  with 
warmth  and  agitation.  tShe  threw  herself  on  the  breast 
of  the  friend,  and  said,  while  her  voice  was  choked  with 
tears,  '  Take  care  of  my  sister.'  Scarcely  had  slie  gone, 
when  an  inexpressible  anxiety  was  felt  by  both.  They 
looked  around,  and  saw  the  letters  Maria  had  left,  and 
hastened  to  seek  the  unfortunate  ! 

"  They  met  a  multitude  of  people  bringing  the  body 
of  a  young  girl,  that  a  fisherman  had  drawn  from  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  429 

stream.  It  was  Maria!  They  bore  the  body  into  the 
nearest  house,  and  means  of  resuscitation  were  used,  till 
at  length  she  opened  her  eyes." 

But  Maria's  purpose  to  die  was  too  strong ;  she  re- 
sisted all  the  means  of  recovery,  and  although  perfectly 
conscious  and  calm,  and  self-possessed,  before  moraing 
she  had  ceased  to  breathe. 

Her  death  drew  a  dark  cloud  over  Jean  Paul ;  but  he 
rejoiced  that  he  had  not  followed  the  counsels  of  those 
who  had  advised  him  to  treat  her  with  severity  or  ridi- 
cule. 

I  do  not  envy  the  mind  that  can  find  anything  to  ridi- 
cule in  the  melancholy  history  of  this  poor  victim  of  the 
imagination,  or  in  the  far  less  tragical  result  of  Bettme's 
enthusiastic  admiration  of  Goethe.  Bettine  lived  in  the 
same  society  with  Goethe,  and  was  happy  in  all  the 
actual  relations  of  life.  Maria,  on  the  contrary,  brooded 
in  solitude  over  an  ideal  image  of  the  poet ;  or  rather  she 
found  her  own  nature  reflected  in  his  pages,  and,  like  Nar- 
cissus of  old,  she  fell  in  love  with  her  ovm  ideal. 

With  all  his  boasted  knowledge  of  the  female  heart, 
we  must  still  tliink  that  Jean  Peal  eiTed  in  his  treatment 
of  Maria.  At  this  time  she  was  seventeen,  and  he  was 
fifty  years  old ;  and,  as  his  biographers  assert,  he  had  lost 
the  traces  of  the  poet,  at  least  in  his  exterior  appearance. 
Had  he  permitted  Maria  to  go  to  him,  no  doubt  her  pas- 
sion would  have  been  cured.  She  would  have  found  him 
fulfilling  all  the  duties  of  a  good  citizen,  a  kind  father,  a 
faithful  husband ;  living  a  prosaic  life,  with  his  squir- 
rels and  birds ;  her  imagination  heated  by  solitude,  and 
an  intense  spiritual  egotism,  would  have  fallen  naturally 
into  the  calmness  of  the  every-day  domestic  duties  in 
which  woman's  destiny  is  cast. 


CHAPTER    VI 


Eichter's  Love  of  Travelling.  —  Visits  Prince  Dalberg.  — 
Visits  Heidelberg.  —  Receives  his  Doctor's  Ditloma.  — 
Henry  Voss.  —  Animal  Magnetism. 


E  turn  now  to  more  cheerful  inci-  a.  d.  isie 
dents.  We  have  already  learnt  -^t-  53. 
from  Kichter's  youthful  history  how  much 
value  he  attached  to  the  pleasures  and  advan- 
tages of  journeying.  During  the  war,  and  while  his  pen- 
sion was  withheld,  the  old  desire  slumbered,  or  was  only 
indulged  in  short  excursions  to  Erlangen  and  Nurnberg. 
But  now  he  was  again  easy  in  his  pecuniary  relations, 
and  his  history  will  be  best  learnt  from  his  letters  to 
Caroline,  on  his  various  journeys,  from  1816  to  1821. 
We  cannot  but  wonder  that  the  beloved  wife  was  never 
his  companion  upon  these  excursions ;  but  tlien  lie  would 
not  have  enjoyed  what  he  called  the  chief  pleasure  of 
travelling,  the  delight  of  returning  to  her. 

Caroline  was  a  true  woman  and  a  true  wife  ;  one  of 
those  self-sacrificing,  devoted  beings,  who,  regai'dless  of 
her  own  pleasures,  was  careful  for  the  comfort  of  others. 
Everything  was  prepared  by  her  for  Richter's  conven- 
ience on  these  occasions,  even  to  the  packing  of  the  car- 
riage, where  he  continued  his  literary  works  on  the  road, 
reading  and  writing,  as  if  he  were  in  his  own  study. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  431 

Paul  left  exact  directions  for  his  family  in  his  absence : 
a  sort  of  testament  for  each.  To  the  youngest  daughter 
was  committed  the  care  of  the  weather-frog  ;  to  her  sister 
the  canary-birds  and  the  spiders  ;  and  for  his  wife  such 
written  directions  as  the  following  :  — 

"  In  case  of  fire,  the  dark-bound  manusci-ipts  must  be 
first  saved.  Second.  The  money  ;  and  paper-coffer  after- 
wards. Third.  Record  every  dollar  that  you  take  out, 
and  the  date,  but  further  of  the  spending,  not.  Fourth. 
Let  both  the  doors  of  my  study  be  shut,  and  do  not  let 
the  squirrel  go  in.  Let  all  the  ^vindows  be  closed  also, 
on  account  of  the  flies,  and  open  them  only  on  the  day 
of  my  arrival.  Fifth.  Lend  no  book  without  recording  it. 
I  pray  thee  heartily  to  eat  regularly,  and  to  drink  a  little 
beer,  that  you  may  be  blooming.  Do  not  be  anxious 
about  me.  Do  not  remain  always  in  the  house,  and  take 
Spitz  with  you  when  you  go  out." 

He  rewarded  Caroline's  minute  cares  by  long  and  con- 
stant letters.  He  appears  in  all  his  journeys  to  have 
written  to  her  every  other  day.  We  regret  that  her  let- 
ters are  not  also  given  to  us  ;  but  from  the  few  we  have, 
modest  and  beautiful  as  they  are,  we  see  his  genius  re- 
flected in  hers  as  the  light  of  a  distant  star  is  reflected  in 
the  dew  of  the  violet. 

Richter's  first  journey  is  to  visit  the  prince  primate 
Dalberg,  to  whom  he  had  been  indebted  for  the  first  two 
years  of  his  pension.  The  grateful  disposition  of  the  poet 
is  evinced  in  this,  that,  instead  of  visiting  the  enchanting 
scenes  upon  the  Rliine  he  had  so  longed  for,  he  should 
first  go  to  the  solitary  Regensburg  before  all  things,  to 
fulfil  a  duty  of  remembrance  to  the  deserted  and  forgotten 
Dalberg. 


432  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

TO   OTTO   AND   EMANUEL. 

"  Regensburg,  August,  1816. 

"  The  prince  is  a  tall,  old  man,  somewhat  bent,  with  a 
strongly  marked  profile,  especially  the  nose  ;  the  If  ft  eye 
is  always,  through  weakness,  closed.  In  conversation,  as 
in  everything  else,  he  is  more  of  a  learned  man  than  of  a 

prjnce The  first  day,  from  eleven  to  twelve,  he 

asked  only  about  my  wife,  and  at  dinner  also,  when  he 
drank  her  health.  By  evening  our  acquaintance  was 
more  perfect  than,  since  Herder's  death,  I  have  enjoyed 
with  any  one.  Never  in  so  short  a  time  has  a  prince 
won  my  love.  Since  then,  I  have  been  with  him  every 
day  from  six  o'clock  until  half  past  seven.  We  sit  in  the 
twilight  with  a  half-emptied  flask  between  us,  and  talk 
about  religion,  philosophy,  and  all  the  sciences.  In  faith 
and  works  he  is  a  spiritualist,  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word.  He  told  me,  unreservedly,  of  the  mistakes  of  his 
youth,  in  short,  of  a  hundred  things,  that  can  only  be  re- 
peated verbally.  His  working  day  consists  of  ten  hours  ; 
two  hours  he  gives  to  public  transactions  ;  two  he  labors 
upon  his  work  upon  Christianity.  After  intellectual 
exertion,  prayer,  he  said,  strengthened  and  refreshed 
his  mind  more  than  anything  beside.  His  religious 
axioms  are,  the  highest  veneration  for  God,  and  the 
deepest  self-humiliation.  Against  my  placing  Christ 
beneath  God,  he  said,  in  a  gentle  tone  merely,  no  ! 
He  desired  my  judgment  of  the  great  question  of  Pi- 
late. It  is  not  easily  answered,  but  mine  satisfied  him. 
I  spare  the  good  old  man  of  seventy-four  all  disputa- 
tions. 

"  He  told  me  if  he  ever  received  the  twenty  thousand 
florins,  that  without  solicitation  the  Congress  of  Vienna 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  433 

had  agreed  to  pay  him,  he  should  do  something  for  my 
wife,  after  my  course  was  finished.* 

"  About  eiglit  o'clock  last  evening  the  Prince  took  me 
to  visit  the  Count  Westerhold,  a  friend  of  Lavater's,  who, 
on  account  of  his  ten  years  of  gout,  admits  no  one  earlier. 
Enter  his  apartment,  you  have  been  there  for  years  ! 
Think  of  a  table  with  a  curious  lamp,  that  I  know  not 
how  to  name,  suspended  above  it.  On  the  sofa  his  mild 
and  sweet  Avife ;  the  Prince  near  her,  and  opposite  the 
eldest  daughter,  who  is  mending  pens  for  her  two  little 
sisters,  who,  at  a  distant  table,  are  preparing  their  lessons 
for  their  teacher ;  the  Count,  also,  was  writing  at  the 
great  work-table.  I  have  never  seen  such  home-like 
simplicity  in  the  apartment  of  a  noble.  We  were  all 
happy,  especially  the  Prince,  and  I  was  like  an  old,  out- 
serviced  poodle,  that  had  got  comfortably  upon  his  stool. 
There  was  tea,  with  rack,  and  afterwards  archbishop.f 

"  Evening  suppers  and  tea,  as  with  us,  are  unusual 
here.  Except  the  first  time,  I  have  been  always  in  boots. 
You  see  to  what  boldness  a  quiet,  self-formed  man  may 
come.  I  would  the  situation  of  the  learned  were  more 
respectable  here.  I  was  never  so  moderate  in  conver- 
sation ;  and  in  di'inking  I  am  completely  to  be  won- 
dered at." 

"  My  beloved  Caroline  :  "  Yesterday,  as  I  came 
from  the  heavenly  garden  at  Prutlingen,  I  received  your 
precious  letter.  It  brought  me  a  more  beautiful  Eden 
than  the  one  I  had  just  left.  From  strong  emotion  I 
was  silent.  Ah,  could  I  have,  instead  of  the  pale  image 
in  my  thoughts,  your   warm,  living  eyes   before  me  !    I 

*  The  prince  died  suddenly,  withuut  a  will,  and  Caroline  received 
nothing. 

t  Mulled  wine,  with  roasted  oranges  in  it. 

19  BB 


434  I^IFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

shall  leave  here  Friday  the  sixth,  and  get  home  about 
seven  on  Saturday.  The  cliildren  can  go  half  an  hour 
before  to  see  if  I  have  come,  so  that  I  may  have  you 
alone  at  first. 

"  Wlierefore,  good  soul,  do  you  excuse  your  nQcessary 
expenses  ?  I  fear  only  that  you  spare  the  money  too 
much.  I  shall  employ  the  two  days  of  my  journey  back 
in  moral  observations,  for  which  I  have  written  a  special 
book  (that  I  studied  also  at  Bayreuth,  little  as  you  ob- 
served me)  to  strengthen  my  mind  against  the  perversity, 
which  I  inherit  from  my  father,  of  making  everywhei'e 
false  lights  and  shades.  My  Primas  alone  has  a  heart 
full  of  pure  love,  and  free  from  all  selfishness.  You 
would  fall  weeping  upon  his  breast.  Farewell,  my  be- 
loved !    Act  fx'eely,  and  do  not  trouble  thyself,  nor  thine 

"  R." 

The  following  year,  1817,  Richter  visited  Heidelberg, 
and  saw,  for  the  first  time,  the  enchanting  shores  of  the 
Rhine.  His  preparation  for,  and  indeed  his  whole  ac- 
count of,  this  journey  are  too  interesting  to  be  omitted. 
He  wrote  to  his  friend  Henry  Voss,  before  starting. 

"  May  12,  1817. 
"  At  length  I  have  the  joy  to  petition  you  about  twenty 
or  tliirty  things,  all  concerning  the  apartment  that  I  will 
thank  you  to  provide  for  me  between  Wliitsuntide  and 
the  longest  day.  An  apartment  without  a  little  sleeping 
chamber  attached.  I  ask  only  a  bed  and  a  poor  sofa, 
as  I  only  read  and  write  upon  one,  a  bed-maker  and  a 
woman  to  bring  my  coffee,  and  only  the  most  indispensable 
furniture.  But  this  little  chamber  must  not  look  towards 
the  rising  sun,  but  rather  towards  the  west ;  and  if  pos- 
sible, where  there   is   not   much   bustle  in   the  mominsc 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  435 

hours,  wliich  for  me  Lave  more  gold  in  them  than  many 
stolen  hours  ;  besides,  I  can  make  my  Hernhutt  hollow 
out  of  the  city.  The  centre  need  not  be  large,  if  only  the 
circle  extends,  for  the  first  creates  the  last. 

"  Everything  must  be  hired,  and  I  must  pay  for  every- 
thing. I  lived  thus  in  Erlangen,  in  Nurnberg,  and 
would  have  done  so  in  Regensburg  had  not  the  Prince 
Primas  chosen  to  pay  for  me ;  but  as  a  guest  I  had  not 
the  joy  of  freedom.  Besides,  I  would  escape  from  books. 
They  indeed,  but  not  men,  mountains,  and  rocks,  can  we 
prosci'ibe  or  banish. 

"  P.  S.  I  shall  come  alone ;  my  wife  perhaps  will 
come  after  me." 

Jean  Paul  wrote  to  his  wife  at  Bamberg,  the  first  stage 
of  his  journey. 

"  Wednesday. 

"  Tlie  first  thing  I  do  after  taking  a  seat  is  to  take  a 
pen  and  write  to  thee,  dearest  !  The  weather  is  cool, 
clear,  and  splendid,  but  fortune  taunted  me  again  (yet  I 
kept  up  my  old  hope  and  joy),  first  through  a  false  direc- 
tion on  the  road  I  was  betrayed  into  a  bad  inn  ;  that  also 
on  account  of  market-day  was  so  crowded  that  I  could 
get  only  a  poor  upper  chamber.  Since  a  thousand  years 
I  have  not  had  so  pitiful  a  prospect. 

"  What  motherly  care  you  have  taken  of  me,  thou 
good  soul !  Every  little  moment  I  am  reminded  of  thy 
dear  hand  !    AU  goes  well.     Thine  »  j^  „ 

"  Heidelberg,  Sunday. 
"  My  dear  Caroline  :   I  have  this  moment  arrived, 
entirely  well  and  without  loss,  except  through  the  reck- 
oning of  the  host.     Heidelberg  is  divine  in  its  surround- 
ings and  beautiful  in  itself     I  have  seen  onlv  tlie  faithful 


4.36  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

German,  Voss.  My  cliamber  is  onl}'^  too  good.  I  have 
only  time  to  pay  the  coachman  and  go  to  bed.  Kiss  my 
dear  Kinderlein.  They  must  kiss  their  mother,  and  be 
really  obedient  and  good." 

His  account  of  the  rece])tion  of  his  Doctor's  diploma, 
and  of  a  fete  that  was  made  for  him  upon  the  Neckar,  are 
so  naive,  and  betray  so  innocent  a  vanity,  that  tliey  should 
not  be  withheld  from  the  reader. 

"  Heidelberg,  July,  1817. 

"  On  the  very  day,  my  beloved  dear  heart,  that  I  have 
become  Doctor  of  philosophy,*  will  I  write  to  you.  How 
shall  I  paint  to  you  the  love  and  esteem,  even  to  excess, 
with  which  I  am  here  received.  The  dog  even,  could  he 
speak,  would  tell  you  he  had  never  been  so  well  fed,  and 
from  such  beautiful  hands.  I  have  lived  hours  such  as  I 
never  passed  before,  especially  on  the  water  excursions ; 
listening  to  the  vivats  of  the  students,  and  the  singing  of 
old  Italian  music.  But  I  thank  the  All  Good  as  much  as 
I  can  thank  him,  by  mildness,  (juietness,  modesty,  love,  and 
justice  to  every  one.  I  am  most  intimate  with  Paulus, 
and  his  wife,  who  is  not,  after  the  Jena  re[)ort,  a  pretend- 
ing, literary  coquette,  but  an  eidightencd,  accomplished 
Haiisfrau,  and  their  beautiful  daughter,  Sophia,  who  reads 
in«leed,  nothing  but  me  and  the  Bible,  and  understands  the 
most  difficult  parts,  or  suffers  herself  to  be  enlightened. 

"  On  Sunday  there  was  a  water  party  on  the  Neckar. 
It  seemed  to  me  like  lii'e  in  my  romances,  as  the  long 
vessel  with  an  awning,  ornamented  with  oak  branches 
and  ribbon  streamers,  and  followed  by  a  Ijoat  filled  with 
musicians,  parted   for  the   mountains  of  Bergen.      The 

*  Paul's  delight  at  receiving  his  Doctor's  diplojna  was  expressed 
with  the  most  childlike  simplicity.  He  tells  Caroline  that  Max  must 
translate  it,  so  that  she  could  show  it  to  the  friends  and  neighbors. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  437 

greater  part  of  the  ladies  and  men  sat  at  the  long  table 
in  the  centre  of  the  vessel.  Students,  professors,  beau- 
tiful girls,  women,  the  crown  prince  of  Sweden,  and  a 
splendid  Englishman ;  a  young  Prince  von  Waldeck,  all 
united  in  the  most  innocent  enjoyment.  My  cap  and  the 
hat  of  the  Prince  were  demanded  from  the  other  end  of 
the  table  by  two  beautiful  girls,  and  returned  wreathed 
with  oak-leaves,  and  we  must  both  wear  them  thus 

"  One  cloud  after  another  withdrew  from  the  sky.  Upon 
the  old  castle  rocks  waved  flags  and  handkerchiefs,  and 
the  young  people  shouted  vivats.  In  our  vessel  there 
was  much  singing,  and  boat  after  boat  followed  us  with 
music.  In  the  evening  a  youth  with  a  guitar  sang  my 
favorite  song,  '  Name  not  the  name.'  I  was  so  power- 
fully affected,  that  I  was  obliged  to  think  of  foolish  aud 
stupid  things  to  restrain  the  excess  of  my  emotion ;  and 
thus  in  a  beautiful  evening  the  whole  little  world  of  joy 
returned,  without  the  smallest  interruption,  accident,  or 
misunderstanding,  to  their  homes. 

"  Thus  blessed,  and  indeed  encroaching  on  the  gifts 
of  the  Infinite,  I  stood  in  the  dai-kness  of  the  night  in 
a  circle  of  students,  singing  vivats,  and  gave  my  hand  to 
be  seized  by  a  hundred  hands,  wliile  I  looked  gratefully 
to  heaven." 

"  August. 
"  Dearest !  I  write  again  upon  my  holy  mountain ! 
How  shall  I  paint  to  you  the  open  heaven  into  which 
I  looked  as  the  Upper  Rliine  opened  before  me.  It  flows 
eternally  before  me.  I  have  passed  from  admiration  to 
admiration.  I  was  received  in  all  the  cities  in  the  same 
manner.  In  Manheim  they  gave,  on  my  account,  the 
opera  of  the  Vestal,  by  Spantini,  which  usually  melts  and 
weakens,  by  its  exquisite  beauty.    I  would,  hearing  these 


438  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

tones,  dejiart  fioia  life.  What  lovely  female  forms  came 
before  mo  !  I  have  not  seen  for  ten  jears  so  many,  and 
so  youthful,  and  been  kissed  with  such  emotion  ;  but  I 
felt,  thereby,  the  holiness  and  elevation  and  deep-rooted 
nature  of  married  love,  and  that  this,  in  comparison,  is 
only  a  rootless  and  scentless  flower.  The  love  of  married 
life,  in  comparison  with  this,  is  like  embracing  one's  own 
children  rather  than  those  of  a  stranger.  I  know  de- 
cidedly that  my  domestic  heaven  can  and  will  be  only 
the  repetition  of  what  it  has  l)een  ;  and  that  it  shall  exceed 
the  past  for  thy  happiness,  thou  true  and  good ! 

"  Max  nuist  study  at  Heidelberg.  Pure,  protecting 
spirits,  in  the  i'orm  of  my  friends,  will  surround  him. 
You  will  always,  dear  Max,  be  to  your  mother  as  you 
were  the  day  after  your  communion,  and  not  afar  off 
trouble  me.  I  so  gladly  think  of  you  thus ;  and  it  would 
be  hard  if,  on  my  return,  I  could  not  embrace  you  with 
the  same  affection  as  the  others.  I  think  often  of  you, 
dearest  Caroline,  often  with  painful  longing;  I  will  never 
repeat  so  long  a  journey  without  you.  You  would  be  so 
loved  here,  by  Swartz,  Hegel,  and  Paulus  ! 

"  .  .  .  .  Ah  well,  dearest!  I  have  here  much,  too 
much  to  do,  althoifgli  I  steal  time  to  work  from  the  fairest 
hours.  When  I  return  I  will  accomplish  more,  go  out 
less,  live  abstemiously,  and  say  often  to  the  body,  '  Thou 
must!'  It  is  incomprehensible  the  true  oversight  that 
one  takes  of  himself,  and  the  faults  that  one  discovers  in 
himself,  when  he  arrives  in  a  new  place  under  new  rela- 
tions. It  is  so  with  me,  and  I  shall  return  to  thee  a 
new  and  improved  edition  of  myself.  Farewell,  beloved  ! 
Greet  my  Emanuel,  and  his  Emanuelle,  and  Otto,  and 
the  good  Kindcrlein ;  they  will  soon  again  be  crowding 
on  my  sofa." 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  439 

In  this  Heidelberg  journey  Ricbter  formed  the  most 
intimate  friendship  Avith  Henry  Voss,  a  man  much  younger 
than  himself,  indeed,  young  enough  to  Iiave  been  the  friend 
of  his  son.  He  wrote  with  great  delight  to  his  wife,  "  that 
in  the  true  German  Voss  he  had,  in  his  old  age,  found  a 
new  thou."  *  Richler  was  now  fifty-four  years  old,  and 
Voss  "  stood  beside  him  like  his  youth."  It  is  a  rare  bless- 
ing to  the  old  to  go  back,  and,  as  it  were,  live  over  again 
their  youthful  yeai"s  in  another  and  younger  mind.  It  is  like 
a  new  blossoming  of  life  after  the  fruit  has  been  gathex'ed. 

In  this  journey  Richter  also  made  the  discovery  of  his 
power  of  imparting  animal  magnetism,  and  he  afterwards 
made  use  of  it  to  alleviate  pain  in  his  suffering  friends. 
While  he  was  at  Heidelberg  a  lady  brought  her  daughter, 
suffering  from  severe  toothache,  to  him,  after  he  had  re- 
tired for  the  night.  He  rose  instantly,  and  came  into  the 
hall  with  bare  feet,  and  with  the  utmost  patience  and  ten- 
derness exerted  the  magnetic  power,  and  sent  the  young 
lady  home  in  a  deep  and  quiet  sleep.  But  while,  on  one 
side,  the  discovery  of  this  power  was  a  rich  source  of 
humoi'ous  excitement,  and  an  occasion  of  benevolent  ex- 
ertion for  others,  the  practical  use  of  it  at  so  late  a  period 
of  life  suddenly  impaired  his  vigor,  and  helped,  with  other 
evils,  to  bring  on  an  early  and  premature  old  age. 

The  following  year,  1818,  Jean  Paul  left  home  again, 
to  visit  Frankfort  and  renew  his  pleasure  by  again  seeing 
Heidelberg  and  the  Rhine  ;  but  he  seems  to  begin  to 
feel  the  weariness  of  travelling  alone.  He  wrote  to 
Caroline :  — 

"  The  fdirest  prospect  to  me  this  afternoon  was  your 

*  The  reader  will  recollect  thou  is  only  used  in  the  familiar  inter- 
course of  intimate  friendship. 


440  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

apartment,  surrounded  by  our  children.  In  the  morning 
"W'ill  your  eyes  and  heart  hover  about  me,  and  remind  me 
of  a  day  *  that  has  now  become  holier  and  dearer  than  in 
its  first  birth.  Be  only  joyful  and  hoping,  as  I  am,  and 
we  shall  need  nothing  more.  Children  !  would  yoa  create 
a  joy  for  your  father,  while  he  is  away,  make  your  mother 
happy  by  your  goodness  and  love,  and  you  \vill  be  truly 
dear  to  your  father." 

The  next  day :  "  Perhaps  I  have  consecrated  our 
yesterday's  festival  by  a  health-giving  action.  I  passed 
through  Wurzburg,  on  account  of  the  misdirection  of  my 
pension  by  the  finance  director.  But  I  said  not  a  word 
of  the  mistake,  for  he  had  a  consumptive  daughter  of  six- 
teen years,  that  the  family  physician  had  given  over.  I 
proposed  to  this  man  (as  he  had  no  faith  in  it)  magnetism, 
merely  as  a  last  possible  saving  means.  With  his  consent 
I  magnetized  the  daughter  in  bed,  and  put  her  into  a  pro- 
found and  gentle  sleep.  Another  physician,  an  excellent 
young  man,  who  has  learnt  in  Berlin,  will  continue  the 
magnetism.  I  have,  at  least,  saved  the  good  mother  from 
premature  tears,  for  witbout  magnetism  tlie  daughter  must 
certainly  die.  Her  face  is  already  like  white  marble 
sculptured  on  a  monument.  It  was  my  only  consolation 
yesterday,  when  I  had  nothing  to  press  to  my  heart  but 
my  own  empty  arms,  that  you  would  make  for  youi-solf  a 
real  joy,  in  thinking  of  this  day,  of  our  short  separation 
and  eternal  reunion.  Farewell,  most  beloved,  my  heart 
kisses  the  children  !  Had  I,  of  the  six  or  eight  eyes,  one 
only  here  ! " 

"  Frankfort,  Miiy  30. 

"  To  Caroline  :  Yesterday,  in  the  midst  of  the  coldest 
weather,  I  reached  this  great,  splendid  city.     On  the  way 

*  Tvventj'-seventh  of  May,  their  wedding-day. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  44I 

I  have  gained  on  the  right  ear  a  wholly  gray  lock,  and  on 
the  left  one  nearly  so.     I  must  thank  either  the  cold  or 

the  cap  for  this  natural  powder I  am  in  the  house 

of  the  rich  bookseller,  Wenner.  Paying  is  not  to  be 
thought  of.  I  could  not,  without  great  trouble,  insist 
upon  paying  for  wine  and  beer.  His  somewhat  sickly, 
but  noble  and  diffident  (childless)  wife,  a  singer  and 
sketcher,  and  my  warmest  reader,  has  provided  for  the 
most  minute  conveniences.  I  have  three  splendid  cham- 
bers and  a  private  staircase.  Near  the  writing-table  a 
bell  for  the  servants,  wax  lights,  and  silver  candlesticks, 
and,  if  I  desire  it,  the  most  complete  solitude.  The  lady 
wept  for  joy  when  I  came  here.  Wenner  has  much  good- 
ness in  his  countenance,  in  which  there  is  a  strong  re- 
semblance to  Goethe,  and  he  always  acts  without  many 
words. 

"■  There  are  as  many  ugly  female  faces  here  as  there 
were  beautiful  in  Mainze,  —  tiiily,  broadly  ugly.  Till 
now  I  have  only  met  and  spoken  with  matrons,  except 
two  single  ladies,  which  the  humorist,  Goetlie's  early  pas- 
sion, invited  me  to  meet  this  evening  at  Brentano's.  I 
can  scarcely  enjoy  this  heavenly  weather,  because  there 
is  no  garden  out  of  the  city  where  I  can  go. 

" .  .  .  .  How  often  I  thought  yesterday,  on  the  water, 
under  the  splendid  canopy  of  night,  of  you,  and  said,  '  Ah, 
could  my  Caroline  enjoy  her  birthday  festival  with  me  ' ; 
and  this  morning  I  awoke  melancholy  at  the  thought  that 
you  are  always  alone,  or  only  with  the  children,  on  your 
birthday.  But  I  need  no  festival  of  life  to  remind  me  of 
your  love.  The  careful  preparation  and  packing  of  every 
article,  the  new  wristbands  on  the  shirts,  every  morning 
remind  me  of  the  pious  hand  that  so  lovingly  orders 
everything  for  my  comfort." 
19* 


442  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

The  Frankfort  enthusiasm  for  Richter  was  a  repetition 
of  the  Heidelberg.  They  also  gave  him  a  night  festival 
in  boats  on  the  Main,  which  was  nearly  a  repetition  of 
that  on  the  Neckar,  except  that  the  boats  were  illumi- 
nated with  colored  lamps,  and  the  shore  with  torches. 

He  extended  his  joui-ney  to  Heidelberg,  and'  seems 
almost  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  to  have  made  the 
melancholy  discovery,  that  the  same  joys,  although  the 
elements  are  the  same,  are  never  felt  a  second  time  with 
the  same  mtensity. 

He  wrote  to  Caroline  :  "  I  depart  from  Heidelberg  in 
a  wholly  different  disposition  from  the  last  time,  although 
there  was  nothing  then  that  ought  to  have  been  unpleas- 
ant or  painful  to  you.  Indeed,  I  look  with  too  prosaic 
eyes  upon  everything.  The  poetic  flower  of  love  of  the 
last  year,  is  (alas,  for  it  was  so  innocent !)  entirely  faded, 
as  in  its  nature  it  could  know  neither  continuance  nor 
resuscitation.  What  I  truly  dream  of  is  our  evenings 
together.  How  long  shall  they  last?  First  Max  with- 
draws, then  the  little  girls,  and  we  sit  alone  together ;  at 
last  you  are  wholly  alone.  Ah !  let  us  love  as  long  as 
there  is  yet  time  to  love  !     Eternally  your  own 

" ....  As  I  passed  through  Offenbach,  a  beautiful 
mother  of  six  children  came  out  to  meet  me,  and  pressed 
into  my  hand  a  leaf  of  thanks  for  the  Levana.  Never 
female  eyes,  except  ypurs,  looked  so  amiably  at  me. 
What  open,  beautiful  faces  there  are  in  this  Offenbach. 
The  love  of  my  fellow-men  is  the  only  dew  for  my  arid 
soul." 

To  understand  the  first  part  of  the  letter  just  read,  it 
is  necessary  to  refer  to  a  circumstance  mentioned  by  one 
of  Richter's  biographers. 

In  liis  first  journey  to  Heidelberg  the  daughter  of  Pau- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  443 

lus,  the  beautiful  and  spirituelle  Sophia  Paulus,  is  said  to 
have  made  an  impression  on  the  heart  of  Richter,  that 
renewed  all  his  romantic  dreams  of  a  spiritual  love.  Tliis 
lady  was  afterwards  celebrated  for  her  literary  produc- 
tions, and  by  a  short  and  unhappy  man-iage  with  William 
August  Schlegel.  Notwithstanding  Jean  Paul's  deep  and 
hardly  gained  knowledge  of  the  female  heart,  he  is  said 
to  have  spoken,  after  his  return  home,  with  such  openness 
and  frequency  of  Sophia,  as  to  awake  a  painful  jealousy 
and  humiliating  distrust  in  the  heart  of  his  devoted 
wife. 

The  reader  may  judge,  by  a  letter  he  wrote  to  the 
beautiful  Sophia  after  his  return,  how  far  the  jealousy  of 
Caroline  had  any  real  foundation. 

"  August  10,  1817. 

"  My  Sophia  :  My  first  written  word  is  to  you.  In 
the  evening,  in  Manheim,  I  could  not  leave  the  apartment 
where  there  had  been  so  much  love,  and  in  the  morning 
I  could  not  remain  there,*  but  went  for  the  whole  day 
to  Steinburg.  Steinburg  held  out  to  me  a  pure  heaven, 
and  if  you  will  share  it  a  perfect  one.  He  and  others 
would  get  up  for  me  the  opera  of  the  Vestal,  which  ig 

the  Madonna,  the  others  are  only  nuns  among  operas 

You  and  the  Rhine  belong  together,  and  when  I  meet  it 
again,  your  image  like  that  of  a  star  will  hover  over  it, 
and  cast  a  splendor  upon  it  wherever  it  flows.  How 
often  I  took  the  front  seat  in  the  carriage  yesterday,  to 
look  at  the  Heidelberg  mountains,  that  arose  shining  in 
the  distance,  as  the  clouds  hung  over  the  place  where  I 

was And  so  farewell  nevei'-to-be-forgotten  Sophia. 

Write  me  above  all  things  every  pain  that  you  feel,  for  I 

*  Sophia  and  her  father  accompanied  him  to  Manheim,  on  his 
return. 


444 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


know  your  joys.     Nothing  can  divide  us,  not  even  the 
great  happiness  that  I  so  devoutly  wish  thee  !  * 

"  R." 

*  Her  mamage  with  August  Schlegel,  which  lasted  only  a  few 
weeks,  when  she  returned  to  her  parents  in  Heidelberg.  The  mother 
of  Sophia  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  literary  women  in  Ger- 
many, and  she  was  herself  remarkable  for  her  study  of  Shakespeare 
and  knowledge  of  English  literature. 


CHAPTER    VII. 


Visits  Munchen.  —  Richtee.  —  His  Son  Max.  —  His  Melancholy 
AND   Death. 


ICHTER'S  journey  in  the  spring  of  a.d.  I820 
1820  was  to  visit  his  son  Max,  who  -^t-  57. 
had  been  placed,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  at  the 
Gymnasium  at  Munchen.  An  extract  from 
one  of  his  letters  will  afford  an  insight  into  the  character 
of  this  interesting  young  man,  whose  early  death  threw  a 
cloud  over  his  family  that  never  wholly  passed  away. 

"  Dear  Caroline  :  Upon  the  way  from  Regensburg 
to  Landshut,  God  sent  me  in  the  forenoon  three  cloud- 
less, heavenly  blue,  sunny  hours,  and  I  had  for  the  first 
and  last  time  in  that  journey  an  idyllic  frame  of  mind, 
for  which  I  have  languished  long  years ;  and  that  endures 
no  society  except  that  of  the  coachman,  who  sings  in  the 
distance  as  mine  does.  In  the  afternoon,  where  the  dis- 
tant prospect  over  Landshut  opens  richly,  the  Devil  him- 
self I  believe  seized  the  opportunity,  and  poured  so  out 
of  the  clouds,  that  he  drowned  the  beautiful  Isar,  and  the 
bridge  and  the  mountain  crown  over  Landshut. 

"  This  rainy  introduction  into  Munchen  continued  as 
far  as  the  Black  Eagle.  I  sought  Max  in  vain  in  his 
nest  up  five   flights   of  stairs,   and  then   went  to  the 


446  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

SchlichtgeroU's.  I  found  them  as  spirituelle  as  in  former 
times,  but  they  convinced  me  of  a  truth  I  have  long  sus- 
pected, that  year^  take  from  women  more  of  the  outward 
than  from  man  of  the  inward. 

"  They  conjectured  that  ]\Iax  was  with  their  son  ;  and 
in  two  minutes  he  hung  sobbing  upon  my  breast.  '  His 
form  and  face  have  filled  out  splendidly.  He  is  half  a 
head  taller  than  I  am  ;  blooming,  and  fuller  in  the  face. 
He  was  more  neatly  and  elegantly  dressed  than  I  am,  and 
yet  wears  only  the  clothes  he  brought  from  home.  His 
personal  appearance  corresponds  with,  yes,  exceeds  his 
letters,  and  my  whole  heart  yearns  towards  the  pure,  free, 
powerful,  but  unpretending  youth.  As  he  went  with  me 
from  the  SchlichtgeroU's,  he  asked,  '  How  then  is  my 
mother  ? '  but  his  voice  failed  him  for  weeping.  This  is 
pure,  honest  sincerity,  without  extravagance.  He  will 
take  nothing  of  all  I  brought  for  him,  not  even  the  watch, 
as  he  says,  '  he  needs  nothing.'  ....  He  deprived  me  of 
one  night's  sleep,  by  telling  me  of  his  sorrowful  life  in  the 
beginning  of  winter,  in  his  first  destitute  lodgings,  with 
only  a  little  iron  stove  that  imparted  no  heat,  his  win- 
dows broken,  and  his  wood  stolen,  with  nothing  to  enjoy 
at  morning  and  evening,  as  at  home ;  his  clothes,  from 
his  extreme  thinness,  all  too  wide  for  him ;  and  in  the 
solitary  city  without  one  friend,  he  wept  all  night  from 
home-sickness,  and  yet  continued  to  study  till  twelve 
o'clock." 

This  letter  will  prepare  the  reader  to  understand  tlie 
character  of  this  son  of  the  poet,  whose  melancholy  fate 
opened  a  wound  in  the  father's  heart  that  never  closed, 
but  continued  to  bleed  till  it  exhausted  his  own  life. 
From  early  childhood  Max  had  devoted  himself  to  learn- 
ing with  incredible  industry.     In  his  fifteenth  year  he 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  447 

had  read  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in  the  original 
languages,  Homer,  and  the  Greek  tragedians.  His  too 
ascetical  and  mistaken  sense  of  duty  in  Munchen,  and  in 
Heidelberg,  where  he  was  afterwards  sent ;  the  intensity 
of  his  industry,  the  faithfulness  with  which  he  imitated 
his  father's  frugality,  the  few  alleviations  and  comforts  he 
would  allow  himself,  and  the  high  tone  of  his  religious  en- 
thusiasm, soon  and  imperceptibly  undermined  the  healthy 
tone  of  his  body  and  mind. 

Although  distinguished  for  the  facility  with  which  he 
learned  all  languages,  he  was  deficient  in  imagination  and 
in  creative  power,  and  the  poor  young  man  was  discour- 
aged in  not  finding  the  rich  results  he  had  expected  from 
his  faithful  industry ;  and  in  his  painful  doubts  of  himself, 
he  attributed  his  failure  to  a  want  of  sincerity  of  purpose, 
and  took  refuge  in  the  mysticism  of  a  severe,  innocence- 
condemning,  supernatural  theology. 

From  early  childhood  Max  devoted  himself  with  in- 
credible industry  to  all  intellectual  pursuits,  and  in  the 
study  of  languages  he  made  surprising  advances.  Philo- 
logical studies,  although  he  had  not  become  perfect  master 
of  their  forms,  filled  his  thirsting  spirit,  and  while  he  was 
environed  by  a  cheerful  family  life,  he  lived  a  satisfied 
and  happy  youth.  Jean  Paul  drew  into  his  own  life's 
circle  all  who  approached  him,  and  this,  his  only  son  lived 
only  in  him. 

In  HeidelbergTie  wept  through  whole  nights  of  home- 
sickness, believing,  poor  youth !  that  it  was  necessary  to 
repeat  in  himself  the  self-denial  and  the  abnegation  of 
every  natural  instinct,  in  imitation  of  his  father's  ascetic 
and  self-denying  youth. 

Unhappily,  Heidelberg  was  at  this  time  the  hot-bed 
of  those  unintelligible  teachers,  to  whom  the  poor  youth 


448  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

turned  for  support  in  the  sea  of  his  doubts ;  and  when  he 
could  not  comprehend  their  mystical  and  pliilosophical 
phrases,  he  attributed  it  to  his  own  intellectual  incapaci- 
ty, and,  instead  of  turning  to  his  father  to  find  the  cheer- 
ful and  rational  exercise  of  true  devotion,  he  sank  deeper 
in  despondency. 

The  early  martyrdom  of  this  interesting  youth  Avas 
partly  the  tragic  result  of  Jean  Paul's  system  of  educa- 
tion. The  whole  tendency  of  his  teaching  is  to  cultivate 
the  higher  powers  of  the  intellect,  to  excite  the  imagina- 
tion, to  make  poets  and  literary  men ;  and  those  to  whom 
nature  had  not  imparted  the  higher  intellectual  gifts  were 
discouraged  in  his  presence.  His  personal  influence,  also, 
upon  every  one  who  came  into  intimate  association  with 
him,  was  overpowering ;  they  believed  the  true  aim  of 
life  was  to  become  like  him,  a  poet,  or  a  literary  man. 
Even  women  were  not  exempt  from  this  influence,  and 
his  eldest  daughter  believed  it  her  duty  to  remain  unmar- 
ried, and  to  devote  herself  to  the  pursuits  of  her  father, 
as  his  companion  and  friend.  Happily,  the  instincts  of 
woman's  nature  will  sooner  or  later  lead  out  of  the  laby- 
rinths of  theory,  and  after  her  father's  death  she  became 
a  happy  wife,  contented  with  the  i'eminine  duties  of  a 
good  Hausfrav. 

Richter  had  seen  from  the  beginning  the  errors  to 
which  his  son  inclined ;  and  though  he,  had  warned  him 
seriously  and  earnestly,  he  thouglit  them  perhaps  only  a 
stage  in  tiie  intellectual  progress  of  the  youth,  that  he 
would  soon  pass  over.  But,  alas  !  the  poisoned  arrow 
had  entered  too  deeply,  and  his  father's  letters,  instead 
of  healing,  but  intimated  prophetically  the  issue.  He 
wrote  to  him  :  — 

"  Mt  good  Max  :     Your  letters   have  rejoiced  and 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  449 

touched  our  hearts.  But  the  Kanne  theological  water- 
ing-pot, that  has  showered  you  so  effectually,  makes  me 
anxious  for  your  youth ;  an  irrecoverable  period  of  life, 
that  should  be  cheerful  and  joyous,  without  monkish 
vagaries,  and  but  a  preparation  for  a  serious,  useful 
manhood.  This  Kanne,  always  and  eternally  one- 
sided, is  exactly  as  enthusiastic  in  his  theology,  and  in 
the  pitiful  life  of  liis  saints,  as  he  was  in  his  ancient 
wars,  where  he  held  all  the  historical  persons  of  the 
Old  Testament,  merely  as  astronomical  emblems. 

"  Study  the  history  of  the  establishment  of  Christian- 
ity ;  the  letters  of  the  Apostles  and  Evangelists,  tliat  were 
first  collected  at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  that  were 
known  through  Irenasus,  and  particularized  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century  by  Origen.  In  all  the  conver- 
sations of  Christ  there  is  not  a  single  word  of  the  doctrine 
of  all  souls  falling  at  the  same  time  with  Adam,  or  of 
satisfaction  for  sin.  May  God,  my  dear  son,  direct  you 
to  the  cheerful  Christianity  of  a  Herder,  and  Jacobi,  and 
Kant.  Read  rather,  as  I  did  in  Leipzig,  Ai-rian's  Epic- 
tetus,  the  loving  Antoninus's  observations,  and  Plutarch's 
biogi-aphies,  than  Kanne,  who  is  as  worthless  as  an  ex- 
eget  as  he  is  as  an  historian.  There  is  no  other  Revela- 
tion than  the  ever-continuing.  Our  whole  orthodoxy, 
like  Catholicism  itself,  first  centred  in  the  Evangelists, 
and  every  century  opens  and  produces  new  views.  O, 
could  I  complete  my  work  on  ultra  Christianity  !  With 
this  new  monkism  you  will  destroy  in  yourself  all  joy, 
power,  and  ardor,  and  in  the  end  gain  nothing. 

"  I  am  somewhat  calmed  with  regard  to  your  ultra 
Christian  despondency,  by  the  liope  that  it  has  a  physi- 
cal source  in  your  exclusively  sedentary  and  studious  life- 
It  is  indeed  a  poor  consolation.     The  vigor  of  youth  may 

CO 


450  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

enable  you  for  some  years  to  surpass  others  in  knowl- 
edge, but  tlien,  alas  !  my  son !  you  come  before  me,  in 
imagination,  in  the  years  of  full  ripeness,  twenty-five  or 
thirty,  pale,  emaciated  !  apparently  more  dead  than  alive  ! 
God  spare  me  that  sight !  " 

The  father  was,  indeed,  spared  that  sight !  The  in- 
clination of  his  son  to  mysticism  took  a  more  decided 
form,  and,  leaving  philology  as  a  human  science,  he  de- 
voted himself  entirely  to  theology,  as  to  the  free  gift  of 
God.  Religious  enthusiasm  assumed  with  this  poor  young 
man  not  only  the  form  of  distrust  in  and  contempt  for 
all  his  intellectual  gifts,  but  it  was  united  with  a  severe 
asceticism  of  life,  that  he  concealed  for  a  long  time  from 
his  parents.  To  his  strenuous  self-consuming  industry 
he  added  the  most  limited  parsimony  in  food  and  expenses 
of  every  kind,  and  threw  over  this  life-consuming  self- 
denial  the  tender  veil  of  duty,  thinking  thus  to  spare  his 
parents  every  sacrifice  on  his  account. 

His  mother,  also,  upon  whom  he  hung  with  childlike 
love,  and  who  stood  by  him  as  a  consoling  and  protecting 
spirit,  wrote  to  him  thus  :  — 

"  My  dkarest  Son  :  Your  letter,  under  all  the  views 
we  can  take  of  it,  must  yet  make  us  melancholy ;  and  I 
hasten,  before  everything  else,  to  inform  you  of  it,  and 
draw  you,  dear  Max,  from  your  tormenting  errors.  Your 
father  loves  you  inexpressibly,  and  esteems  you  so  en- 
tirely, that  he  can  ask  nothing  from  Providence  but  such 
a  son  as  you  are.  I,  and  your  sisters,  and  all  our  friends, 
bless  God  that  you  are  so  pure,  so  innocent,  the  joy  of 
your  family  and  of  the  world ;  that  you  have  preserved 
the  honesty  and  truth  of  your  mind  in  striving  after 
science,  and  that  there  is  ever  developed   in  you  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  451 

love  of  the  holy,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful.  What 
would  you  then  further?  Can  men  be  gods?  Nothing 
is  to  be  said  against  your  placing  your  ideal  so  very  high. 
But  if  your  jealousy  of  yourself,  on  one  side,  holds  you  in 
that  touching  humility  that  so  well  becomes  the  greatest 
men,  yet  real  religion  is  only  apparent  when,  added  to 
our  earnest  struggle  for  the  highest,  cheerfulness  stands 
as  a  companion  at  her  side.  To  strive  against  the  limi- 
tations of  humanity,  that  are  opposed  more  or  less  to 
every  individual  mind,  is  not  pious,  —  is  not  permitted 
by  God.  0,  suffer  your  beautiful  enthusiasm  for  faith 
to  show  itself  in  this  childlike  submission.  Strive,  but 
torture  not  yourself  with  just  nor  unjust  criminations, 
when  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  belong  to  you.  De- 
pend upon  the  aid  that  is  lent  you,  and  the  success  flow- 
ing therefrom  will  give  you  rest  and  peace. 

'  The  lioness  covets  not  the  lion's  mane; 
The  mother  pheasant  sighs  not  for  ornament; 
With  proud  neck  the  swan  sails  the  sea, 
Humbly  his  mate  shelters  her  j'oung. 
The  rivulet  murmurs  most  sweetly, 
But  bears  no  proud  na.vj  on  its  breast. 
The  ruby  outlasts  the  fragrant  rose, 
But  the  dewy  tears  of  evening 
Shed  no  mild  radiance  from  it. 
Vain  man!    What  wouldst  thou  be? 
Be  thyself!     Covet  no  greater  gift.' 

"  This  extract  from  Plato's  poems,  that  pleased  me  so 
much  on  the  first  reading,  happily  expresses  my  views. 
O  how  painful  to  me  is  your  melancholy,  and  the  slav- 
ish, unjust  self-accusation  before  God,  that  impairs  all 
your  active  powers ;  that  excess  of  religious  sensibility, 
that,  instead  of  the  cheerful  and  loving  power  of  Christian 
faith,  pours  only  death-streams  into  all  the  veins  of  life. 


452  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  Adieu,  my  dear  son.  I  embrace  you  a  thousand  times 
with  the  wai'mest  love." 

This  wise  and  tenderly  maternal  letter  will  make  the 
reader  regret  there  are  not  more  of  Caroline's  to  her  son, 
where  the  riches  of  an  intellectual  nature  are  united  with 
the  tenderness  of  a  mother's  heart. 

The  anxious  solicitude  of  the  parents  of  Max  was  only 
too  soon  justified.  The  too  sensitive  and  conscientious 
youth  returned  home  at  the  end  of  the  year,  shaken,  pale, 
emaciated !  and  a  nervous  fever  of  a,  few  days'  continu- 
ance consigned  him  to  an  early  grave. 

This  melancholy  death  of  his  son,  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen, like  a  heavy  blow,  seemed  to  strike  our  Richter  to 
the  earth.  Tlie  firm,  strong  man,  whom  we  have  seen,  like 
a  block  of  marble,  by  every  previous  stroke  becoming  only 
more  polished  and  statuelike,  was  shattered  and  broken 
by  the  death  of  his  son.  He  could  not  bear  the  sight  of 
any  book  his  son  had  touched ;  and  the  word  Philology, 
(the  science  in  which  Max  excelled)  went  through  his 
heart  like  a  bolt  of  ice.  He  had  such  w^onderful  power 
over  himself  as  to  go  on  with  his  comic  romance  of  Nicho- 
las Margraf,  while  his  eyes  continually  dropped  tears. 
He  wept  so  much  in  secret  that  his  eyes  became  im- 
paired, and  he  trembled  for  the  total  loss  of  sight.  "Wine, 
that  had  previously,  after  long-sustained  labor,  been  a  cor- 
dial to  liiin,  he  could  not  bear  to  touch ;  and  after  em- 
ploying the  morning  in  writing,  he  spent  the  whole  after- 
noon lying  on  the  sofa  in  his  wife's  apartment,  his  head 
supj)orted  l)y  her  arm.  Caroline  stifled  the  yearnings  of 
a  mother,  bereaved  of  her  only  son,  to  comfort  and  sup- 
port her  husband.  She  contrived  ev^ry  artifice  to  draw 
him  from  his  grief,  —  proposing  amusements  for  her 
daughters,  to  induce  him  to  dress  and  shake  off  his  de- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  453 

spondency,  and  go  out ;  but  at  the  same  time  she  repre- 
sented him  "  as  a  true  angel "  in  his  sorrow. 

At  the  end  of  three  months  Richter  was  able  to  write 
to  his  friend,  Henry  Voss. 

"  How  often  for  a  quarter  of  a  year  have  you  com- 
plained of  me,  excused  me,  and  again  complained,  and 
yet  at  last  excused  me,  poor  devil  that  I  am.  Ah!  I 
could  not  do  otherwise.  My  being  has  suffered  not 
merely  a  wound,  but  a  complete  cutting  off  of  all  joy. 
All  former  losses  are  unlike  the  last,  and  my  longing 
after  him  grows  always  more  painful.  Not  on  his  ac- 
count do  I  need  consolation,  but  for  the  loss  of  his  love. 
I  have  still  the  power  to  avoid  constantly  dwelling  upon 
him,  although  every  Grecian  author,  yes,  even  the  word 
PliUology,  cuts  me  to  the  heart.  But  to  hear  or  see  any- 
thing that  was  his  !  Ah,  that  I  cannot  bear !  Enough 
of  this. 

"  I  am  revising  the  third  volume  of  the  Comet.  The 
book  upon  immortality  demands  the  strength  that  I  can 
only  dare  to  think  of  in  the  fulness  of  health.  In  look- 
ing over  the  thirty  years'  work  I  find  that  it  descends 
into  the  depths  of  philosophy.* 

I  will  open  new  light  for  a  thousand  veiled  and  tearful 
eyes,  and  show  them  new  kingdoms  in  the  future  world 
of  existence !  What  new  year  shall  I  wish  to  you  all  ? 
One  only,  that  has  not  the  most  distant  resemblance  to 
my  own !  f 

*  The  Campaner  Thai.  Jean  Paul  bejran,  on  the  day  of  his  son's 
burial,  a  new  work  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  upon  the  foundation 
of  the  Campaner  Thai. 

t  In  Richter's  letters  to  his  wife  I  have  translated  only  what  was 
personal  to  himself  and  family;  allusions  to  persons  and  passing  events 
are  wholly  unintelligible  to  us. 


CHAPTER    VIII, 


EiCHT^ii  VISITS  Dresden.  —  The  Impression  he  made  upon  his 
Relatives. 


HEN  the  spring  returned,  that  sea-  a.  d.  1832, 
son  that  Richter  so  loved,  and  that  ^'-  ^^• 
had  never  failed  to  exhilarate  him,  his  friends 
urged  him  again  to  joui'ney,  hoping  to  awaken 
new  hopes  or  to  turn  his  thoughts  from  his  heart-consum- 
ing sorrow.  The  loss  of  his  son,  also,  made  him  wish 
to  draw  closer  the  honds  of  relationship  with  the  mem- 
bers of  his  wife's  family.  Caroline's  sister,  Minna  Spa- 
zier,  had  lived  many  years  in  Dresden,  and  supported 
her  orphan  children  by  her  literary  exertions.*  One  of 
these  sons  was  born  in  the  same  year  and  month  with  the 
poet's  son  Max.  Such  a  coincidence  could  not  fail  to  in- 
terest the  imagination  of  a  man  who  attached  so  much 
importance  to  coincidences,  and  to  the  time  of  his  own 
bii-th.     He  wrote,  therefoi'e,  to  his  sister-in-law :  — 

"  I  bring  you  a  written  petition,  for  whose  fulfilling  I 
Avill  thank  you  verbally.  In  April  I  would  enjoy  again 
the  beautiful  city  of  Dresden,  where  many  years  ago,  in 

*  Caroline  Williclmine,  called  Minna  Spazier,  married  the  second 
time  a  person  of  the  name  of  Uthe,  and  added  his  name  to  that  of 
Spazier,  her  literary  name.  Slie  was  now  living  in  Dresden,  editor 
of  the  Sinvgriin  (Evergreen),  a  periodical,  in  which  Jean  Paul  and 
many  distinguished  female  authors  assisted  her. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  455 

the  train  of  the  Frau  von  Bcrlespsh,  I  lost  more  -than  I 
found.  Ah !  I  need  now  not  to  forget,  for  that  would  be 
impossible,  but  to  continue  to  remember  all  that  I  have 

ever  loved I  seek  in  Dresden  only  music,  nature, 

that  is,  the  environs  of  the  city,  and  loving  men.  In 
myself  or  around  me  much  hiis  changed.  Time  treats 
wounded  men  like  a  block  of  marble,  and  beats  off  with 
heavy  blows  piece  after  piece,  even  if  it  were  the  form 
of  a  son.     Ah  !  that  we  were  indeed  of  marble  !  " 

To  the  young  Richard  Spazier,  the  twin  cousin  of 
Max,  to  whom  we  have  been  much  indebted  through  the 
course  of  this  biography,  we  owe  an  account  of  the  first 
meeting  with  Richter.     He  says  :  — 

"  The  children  had  been  educated  in  the  utmost  rever- 
ence for  their  uncle,  the  poet,  and  although  they  had  heard 
of  his  works,  they  had  never  read  a  line  of  his.  Their 
mother  received  the  announcement  of  his  visit  with  some 
timidity,  and  prepared  her  children  for  his  reception  with 
stories  of  his  severity,  of  his  penetrating  knowledge  of 
every  weakness  in  others,  and  infinite  firmness  in  their 
suppression  in  himself.  Even  my  eldest  pattern  brother 
trembled  at  the  thought  of  appearing  before  Richter. 
My  situation  was  most  painful ;  born  on  the  same  year 
and  day  with  his  own  son  Max,  my  mother,  in  her  ma- 
ternal solicitude,  looked  upon  it  as  the  finger  of  Provi- 
dence, indicating  that  I  should  supply  to  the  afflicted 
father  the  loss  of  his  son,  and  pointed  out  this  as  the  de- 
cisive moment  of  my  life.  Ah,  what  could  be  expected 
of  a  youth  of  nineteen  years,  who  had  never  read  a  line 
of  his  works,  who  had  been  half  a  year  at  the  university, 
and  was  just  in  the  most  shining  period  of  Philistery. 
What  would  the  severe  moralist  say  to  my  beard,  my  re- 
nownist  dress,  my  pipe,  my  open  breast,  my  unshorn  locks. 


456  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

I  heard  his  voice  in  the  hall  and  would  have  fled,  but  it 
was  too  late,  and  pale  as  a  cloth,  and  with  trembling  lips 
I  stood  before  him.  But  it  was  only  for  a  moment,  and 
fear  gave  place  to  astonishment.  I  saw  a  strong,  but  un- 
der-sized, apparently  kind-hearted  man,  with  brown  face, 
an  eye  that  did  not  annihilate,  but  beamed  mildly,  even 
tenderly  upon  me.  He  was  dressed  in  a  summer  coat  of 
invisible  green,  with  a  straw  hat.  He  held  a  strong  stick 
in  his  hand,  and  was  followed  by  a  white  poodle.  I  felt 
in  a  moment  that  here  was  a  man  who  would  leave  to 
every  one  his  own  independence,  who  would  not  make 
himself  the  standard  of  morals  or  manners,  and  that  the 
want  of  a  neckcloth  would  be  no  crime  in  his  eyes.  And 
so  it  remained  the  whole  time  he  was  with  us,  —  he  de- 
manded nothing,  —  he  asked  not  that  we  should  give  him 
our  time,  or  yield  our  opinions  to  his.  He  received  grate- 
fully, the  attentions  we  offered  him,  but  left  every  one  the 
liberty  to  speak  freely  the  freest  opinions.  Instead  of 
feeling  reserve  or  constraint  in  his  presence,  he  seemed 
to  enlarge  the  region  of  self-dependence,  to  excite  and 
draw  out  the  resources  of  our  minds.  My  student's  na- 
ture that  others  abhorred  he  would  draw  towards  him 
and  protect,  —  yes,  he  was  often  the  direct  advocate  of 
youthful  impulses. 

"  After  he  had  been  with  us  some  time,  from  gratitude, 
and,  perhaps,  to  give  him  pleasure,  I  read  the  most  cele- 
brated of  his  works,  the  Titan  :  the  book  left  me  for  the 
most  part  cold,  with  the  exception  of  the  charming  scenes 
in  Italy,  in  Ischia  and  upon  the  Epomea,  and  the  charac- 
ter of  Linda  ;  but  my  indignation  was  extreme  at  the 
catastrophe  of  Linda.  Kichter  received,  without  the 
smallest  surprise,  my  declaration  that  I  had  never  before 
read  anytliing  of  his,  and  observed  just  as  calmly,  that  I 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  457 

was  extremely  displeased  at  the  fate  of  Linda.  He  even 
led  himself  to  my  excuse  by  saying,  that  Jacobi  and  the 
best  judges  had  expressed  the  same  displeasure  ;  but  for 
the  purpose  he  had  in  view  it  could  not  have  been  other- 
wise ;  and  no  encouragement  to  read  another  of  his  works 
passed  his  lips.  At  last  it  happened  one  morning  that  he 
asked  after  my  studies  and  my  aim  in  life.  I  answered 
only,  '  that  I  would  learn  all  that  was  best  and  most 
beautiful,  but  that  I  had  not  yet  made  choice  of  a  pro- 
fession.' He  sought  to  help  me  to  know  myself,  by  ask- 
ing '  if  I  had  not  a  favorite  author  ? '  I  had  not,  at  that 
time,  but  I  told  him  '  that  as  a  boy  I  had  leanit  Homer 
by  heart,  and  that  I  now  longed  to  read  Tacitus.'  '  I 
see,'  said  he,  '  that,  like  every  youth,  you  would  be  an 
author,'  and  he  asked  me  to  show  liim  any  essay  that  I 
had  ever  attempted  to  write,  etc." 

In  the  five  weeks  that  Richter  spent  in  Dresden,  every- 
thing united,  as  by  mutual  consent,  to  restore  his  wounded 
spirit  to  its  former  cheerfulness.  The  fairest  blue  heaven 
rested  the  whole  time  upon  the  valley  of  the  Elbe.  Dis- 
tinguished strangers,  such  as  Tieck,  Tiege,  Kalkreuth, 
and  Carl  Forster,  were  then  in  Dresden.  The  inhabit>- 
ants,  indeed,  manifested  for  him  nothing  but  curiosity, 
and  the  court  did  not  notice  him.  Distinguished  and  ac- 
complished women,  as  usual,  crowded  around  him  ;  but, 
to  avoid  all  exciting  emotions,  he  strictly  adhered  to  the 
rule  he  had  laid  down  for  himself,  not  to  visit  more  than 
once  at  any  house.  His  sister-in-law's  family  afforded 
him  a  domestic  circle,  where  he  could  enjoy  the  j)rivacy 
and  the  intimate  friendship  he  loved.  The  highly  nervous 
state  of  his  mind  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  avoid  all 
excitement,  and  all  deep  impressions.     He  therefore  did 

not  set  his  foot  within  the  Dresden  Gallerv,  or  any  other 

20 


458  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

hall  of  art.    He  avoided  the  theatres,  and  only  once  heard 
a  mass  in  a  Catholic  church,  surrounded  by  friends  who 
shielded  him  from  all  exciting  emotions. 
He  wrote  as  usual  to  bis  wife. 

"  Dresden,  May  8j  1822. 

"  Thy  loving  and  liberal  soul  would  be  truly  joyful 
over  my  chamber,  which,  of  all  the  chambers  that  I  ever 
inhabited  is  the  most  agreeable,  and  fulfils  all  my  travel- 
ling dreams.  In  the  midst  of  verdure,  and  in  the  distance 
mountain  circles,  it  is  yet  only  half  a  street  from  the 
centre  of  the  city.  The  windows  look  towards  the  setting 
sun,  and  are  so  airy,  clear,  and  cool,  with  a  garden  beneath 
them.  Tbe  chambers  are  furnished  with  every  necessary 
article.  I  lie  blest  upon  my  sofa  in  the  morning,  and  in 
the  evening  I  hardly  go  out  till  sundown.  And  with  all 
this,  the  friendly  mistress  and  the  cheerful,  attentive,  and 
willing  maid  !  That  which  is  to  me  the  most  delijihtful  I 
enjoy  again,  the  Idyllic  life  that  I  lived  in  Eilangen, 
then  the  neighborhood  of  our  Minna  and  her  husband, 
whom  I  learn  every  day  more  to  love  and  value."' 

A  lady  at  this  time  speaks  thus  of  his  reserve  and  self- 
control  m  society,  when  he  did  not  always  take  the  hand 
tliat  was  held  out  to  him,  and  suffered  ladies  to  stand  long 
moments,  unnoticed  behind  his  chair.  "  These  little  ap- 
parent incivilities  should  not  bring  into  question  the  just, 
enlightened,  ever-compassionate  disposition  that  has  made 
the  soul  of  this  extraordinary  man  its  temple.  How 
beautifully  does  he  extend  to  every  one,  even  the  least 
intellectual  in  society,  a  spiritual  arm.  He  comes  to  the 
aid  of  the  poorest  with  the  riches  of  the  mind.  How  his 
host  and  hostess  revere  him.  A  wild  animal,  since  he 
has  been  under  their  roof,  has  become  mild  and  humane  ; 
a  miser  would  build  a  house,  merely  to  make  him  a  con- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  459 

venient  chamber.  No,  never  shall  I  forget  the  night 
when  my  daughter,  suffering  from  a  severe  toothache, 
burst  into  his  lodgings  at  midnight,  and  waked  him  sud- 
denly from  his  first  sleep.  How  indulgently  he  came, 
barefooted,  down  the  garden  steps  (for  the  fainting  child 
had  thrown  herself  into  a  garden  seat),  and  began  to 
stroke  her  magnetically.  Soon  her  pain  was  alleviated, 
and  after  half  an  hour  she  was  carried  in  a  deep  sleep  to 
her  own  house." 

How  did  Richter  himself  enjoy  what  gave  others  so 
much  pleasure  ?    He  wrote  to  Caroline  :  "  After  a  long 

time  a  blue  sky  is  united  with  blue  mountains God 

wills  that  I  should  again,  and  without  display,  be  a  little 
joyful.  Among  the  women  who  here  particularly  interest 
me,  is  the  wife  of  Professor  Forster,  who  sends  me  fre- 
quently, by  her  little  daughter,  fruit  and  flowers.  I  enjoy 
here  many  pleasures  through  the  society  of  enlightened 
men  and  the  arts,  but  I  long  inexpressibly  for  our  life 
again,  at  home  together." 

To  his  young  friend,  Henry  Voss,  he  also  wrote  :  — 

"  The  pleasure-gardens  of  Dresden  exceed  all  Germany 
in  beauty  of  prospect.  The  Bruhlesh  terrace,  in  the 
evening,  with  its  lights,  mountains,  the  bridge,  and  the 
Elbe,  gave  me  an  hour  of  inw^ard  inspiration,  that  I  have 
for  many  years  sought  in  vain  ;  when  all  hovered  over 
me  as  in  the  spring  of  youth,  and  within  and  without  all 
were  blessed  dreams.  It  was  not  melancholy,  not  even 
longing ;  but  full  intoxication  of  happiness  from  within." 

The  Dresden  weeks  were  the  last  of  light  and  joy 
Richter  ever  passed.  The  death  of  his  friend  Henry 
Voss,  immediately  after,  bereaved  him  of  one  who  hung 
upon  him  even  with   feminine   tenderness ;  and   it   was 


460  LIFE     OF   JEAN    PAUL. 

during  the  Dresden  residence  that  he  accidentally  discov- 
ered that  the  sight  of  his  left  eye  was  so  much  gone,  that 
he  could  only  see  about  one  inch  from  it,  and  that  the 
right  eye  also  Avas  rapidly  failing. 

He  wrote  most  touchingly  to  the  mother  of  ,Henry : 
"  He  and  my  Max  lie  buried  in  my  soul  in  one  grave,  for 
I  know  how  both  could  love  me  !  Whatever  other  poAvers 
your  Henry  possessed,  one  glowed  within  him  with  re- 
sistless fervor,  —  the  disciple  John's  capacity  of  loving. 
It  was  strong,  firm,  trusting,  sacrificing ;  but  not  the  acci- 
dental impulse  of  an  imbecile.  His  heart  beat  as  sti'ongly 
against  one  as  for  another.  O  Henry !  forever  lost ! 
Never  more  upon  this  earth  shall  I  be  so  loved  ;  but  even 
this  guarantees  to  thee  and  to  us  the  assurance  of  meetine: 
again.  The  sciences  need  for  their  enjoyment  no  immor- 
tality ;  but  love  demands  the  continuance  of  its  objects ! 
May  your  husband  and  son  bind  up  your  maternal  heai-t 
till  the  wound  closes,  or  until  all  depart  together  to  join 
the  lost  one." 

It  may  seem  to  the  reader  that  there  has  been  in  the 
last  year  of  Jean  Paul's  life  an  uimianly  despondency, 
inconsistent  with  that  Christian  stoicism  with  which  he 
bore  all  his  early  disappointments.  But  to  one  whose 
whole  employment  and  life  had  consisted  in  literary  pur- 
suits, who  had  still  many  works  planned  for  which  he  had 
made  voluminous  preparation,  the  prospect  of  closing  his 
writing-desk  and  leaving  his  work  unfinished,  must  have 
been  full  of  melancholy.  He  had  planned  also,  before 
the  death  of  his  friend  Voss,  a  complete  revision  of  all  his 
printed  works,  in  a  new  and  improved  edition,  for  which 
Voss  was  to  become  the  editor.  He  had  also  begun  the 
Autobiography,  wliich  makes  the  first  part  of  this  work ; 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  461 

and  his  reluctance  to  speal?  of  himself  at  first,  and  the 
cloud  which  his  son's  death  threw  over  the  present,  pre- 
vented him  from  continning  that  picture  of  his  youth  that 
lay  behind  him  in  magic  sunlight.  But  above  all,  there 
lay  warm  on  his  heart  his  beloved  work  on  the  Immor- 
tality of  the  Soul ;  that  work,  by  the  beginning  of  which 
he  had  consecrated  the  burial-day  of  his  Max,  and  from 
whose  sepulchre  he  hoped  it  would  rise  phcenix-like,  and 
point  the  way  to  that  immortal  home  which  was  indeed 
the  home  of  his  spirit,  and  that  where  he  now  centred 
his  dearest  hopes.  And  after  all  these  works  were  com- 
pleted and  all  his  life's  duties  finished,  he  had  held  bright 
in  prospect  before  him  a  journey  to  Switzerland  and 
Italy,  countries  that  he  had  thirsted  to  visit,  and  that  he 
had  looked  to  as  the  reward  of  a  life  of  industry  and  zeal ; 
but  now  a  dark  cloud  had  descended,  and  blotted  out  all 
but  the  inward  consciousness  of  duty  fulfilled. 

Richter's  nephew  mentions  the  pain  with  which  Jean 
Paul  recurred,  in  his  last  days,  to  the  loss  he  had  suffered 
in  never  having  been  able  to  look  upon  the  sea  ;  and  his 
severe  disappointment,  that  in  his  latter  days  he  could 
not  have  ascended  the  Rigi,  where  he  fancied  he  should 
see  Nature  in  her  greatest  elevation  and  her  most  lovely 
beauty. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

The  purely  Comic  Works  of  Jean  Paul.  —  The  Life  of  Fibel. 
—  Nicholas  Margraf,  or  the  Comet. 


HAVE  omitted,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
the  active  part  of  the  life  of  Jean  Paul  to  a 
close,  all  mention  of  his  later,  and  purely  comic 
works.  After  the  publication  of  the  Flegeljahre 
the  troubles  of  the  wars  of  Napoleon  came  on,  when  his 
deep  interest  in  the  fate  of  his  country,  and  the  necessity 
of  providing  for  the  daily  demands  of  his  family  by  short 
narratives,  essays,  and  reviews,  that  brought  an  immedi- 
ate pecuniary  return,  prevented  him  from  completing  any 
great  and  long-sustained  work.  The  Life  of  Fibel,  which 
he  says  in  tlie  preface  was  begun  in  1806,  was  given  to 
the  public  in  1812.  In  this  preface  Paul  calls  the  work 
"  an  octavo  volume,  in  which  some  few  harmless,  guiltless, 
lightless,  splendorless  beings,  with  the  like  fate,  live  their 
little  life.  The  whole  is  a  quieting  still  life,  a  cradle  for 
the  far-niente  of  growing  readers  ;  a  soft,  gray,  evening 
rain,  that,  instead  of  drawing  perfume  from  flowers,  draws 
it  from  the  lowly,  invisible  earth ;  where  at  most  only  a 
finger-breadth  of  evening  glow  shines  out." 

Spazier  says  that  Fibel  was  as  much  a  turning-point 
in  the  author's  works  as  was  the  Invisible  Lodge ;  and 
both  are  explained  and  understood  only  through  his  life 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  463 

and  his  succeeding  works.  The  first  was  written  at  the 
period  when  emotion  and  earnest  feelmg  burst  forth  from 
the  ice-rind  in  which  the  winter-cold  of  satire  had  im- 
prisoned them.  In  the  follomng  season  of  blooming  and 
ever-increasing  love  he  had  risen  in  creative  power,  and 
in  richness  of  fancy,  as  his  experience  of  life  became  more 
varied  and  full,  till  he  reached  nearly  his  own  ideal  in 
the  Titan.  Here,  in  ripened  power  and  self-conscious- 
ness, he  followed  with  the  Flegeljahre,  in  which  he  ana- 
lyzed and  exhibited  his  inseparable  double  nature ;  his 
deep  and  earnest  emotion,  united  with  eccentric  and 
comic  humor.  In  the  Esthetics  he  sought  to  justify 
and  reconcile  his  poetical  peculiarities,  and  the  nature 
of  his  works,  with  the  universal  laws  of  art  and  beauty. 
But  now  in  these  last  works  he  returned  to  the  point 
from  whicli  he  started ;  but  with  altered  view^s,  the  result 
of  his  life  and  experience.  The  calm  satisfaction  and 
contentment,  the  harmonious  quiet,  the  spirit  of  repose 
and  order  that  breathed  in  his  life,  is  imparted  to  all  the 
works  that  were  written  after  the  Titan.  There  is  mod- 
eration in  his  earnestness  and  emotion,  as  well  as  a  genial 
tenderness  in  his  humor,  that  divides  these  last  from  his 
earlier  works,  and  proves  that  his  poetry  was  only  the 
reflection  of  his  life,  and  deeply  rooted  in  it. 

The  theme  of  all  Jean  Paul's  works  is  the  same,  what- 
ever the  form  in  which  it  is  expressed  or  evolved.  This 
theme,  the  experience  in  human  life,  from  the  Godlike  in 
man,  in  contention  with  the  littleness  of  life  ;  the  spark 
of  the  immortal,  struggling  with  earthly  damps  and  ob- 
structions. This,  in  Paul's  convictions,  is  not  the  dis- 
tinction of  the  few,  who,  in  lively  consciousness  of  the 
contest,  think  themselves  unfortunate  beings,  but  is  more 
or  less  the  inheritance  of  every  human  being.      In  his 


464  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

later  works  it  is  no  longer  a  subject  for  pain,  for  the 
illusions  of  life  soften  its  strivings,  and  in  themselves 
make  man  happy.  He  is  healed  by  the  same  spear  that 
Avounds  him.  The  strivings  of  the  ideal  in  man  ;  the 
disproportion  between  his  aspirations  and  his  attainments, 
that  in  his  earlier  satires  were  the  occasion  of  bitter  jests, 
become  in  his  later  works  the  subject  of  a  genial  and 
sympathizing  humor.  The  illusions  that  nourish  these 
aspirations  become  the  source  of  the  highest  and  purest 
joys  in  elevated  characters,  and  often  produce  in  others, 
as  in  Don  Quixote,  a  humor  in  which  the  noblest  minds 
can  sympathize.  Fibel  has  his  illusions,  that  recreate  his 
whole  life ;  but  the  ludicrous  conti-asts  in  it  are  purely 
objective,  and  are  revealed  to  the  reader  alone.  The 
author  jokes  here,  as  in  his  satires,  but  with  wholly  dif- 
ferent feelings,  with  sorrow-enlightened  wisdom  rather 
than  cutting  contempt.  He  contrives  to  maintain  in  the 
breast  of  the  reader  the  secret  consciousness  that  he  is  an 
exception  to  the  general  folly  that  would  live  upon  illu- 
sions, —  a  feeling  that  gives  to  every  satirical  work  its 
pi-incipal  value.  It  produces,  therefore,  a  strange  mix- 
ture of  feeling,  the  consciousness  of  universal  insufficiency 
and  of  individual  success.  This  is  {)artly  the  effect  of  the 
limited  nature  of  his  hero,  and  partly  the  result  of  the 
period  in  which  it  was  written,  and  the  circumstances  of 
the  author's  life. 

The  outward  relations  of  Jean  Paul  had  become  so 
harmonious  and  happy  that  liis  mind  was  kept  in  perfect 
equilibrium.  He  had  reached  as  far  as  is  ever  allowed 
humanity  to  attain  to  the  ideal  of  his  former  aspirations ; 
his  pension  of  four  hundred  dollars  raised  liim  above  all 
pecuniary  anxiety ;  his  children,  blooming  in  liealth  of 
body  and  mind,  hung  upon   him  with  infinite   love ;   he 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  465 

enjoyed  the  fruit  of  his  early  industry  in  his  materials 
for  further  works,  and  the  food  of  his  mind  in  the  envi- 
ronment of  his  beloved  nature  ;  his  works  appeared  to 
him  the  best  that  he  could  create,  and  their  failures  and 
imperfections  not  as  peculiar  to  them,  but  as  belonging  to 
the  universal  imperfection  of  humanity. 

The  Germans  deem  the  author  more  successful  in  hia 
later  than  in  his  earlier  works.  His  humorous  works 
are  more  completely  ai'tistic  and  perfect  as  works  of  art 
than  his  serious.  Although  he  tliought  otherwise,  humor 
is  more  completely  his  native  element.  He  could  not 
represent  a  perfect,  unfortvmate,  elevated  character ;  but 
he  was  completely  successful  in  his  happy  fools  and  sim- 
pletons. 

Fibel  is  nothing  less  than  the  Don  Quixote  of  litera- 
ture ;  not  merely  in  the  construction  of  his  ABC  book, 
with  its  bad  pictures,  and  worse  verses ;  but  he  believes 
he  is  a  world-blessing  genius,  and  that  he  has  given  to 
posterity  the  most  precious  works,  when  he  has  collected 
and  put  his  name  to  all  the  old,  contemptible  rubbish 
swept  from  the  waste-heaps  of  a  bookseller's  shelves. 

Richter,  who  always  united  persijlage  upon  himself 
with  universal  satire,  represents  the  heterogeneous  con- 
tents of  the  books  printed  with  the  name  of  Fibel  as  not 
unlike  his  own  productions,  prepared  from  his  world-wide 
extract  books ;  and  identifies  the  enviable  happiness  of  a 
being  gifted  with  the  illusion  of  Fibel  with  himself,  as  the 
relator  of  it.  and  endeavors  to  remove  the-  joke  from  his 
hero  to  himself.  The  reader  finds  himself  in  Fibel's 
childhood,  upon  the  same  ground  and  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances as  in  the  poet's  earlier  Idyls.  In  the  school- 
houses  of  Joditz  and  Schwarzenbach,  with  the  well-known 
consumptive  figure  of  the  finch-hunting  schoolmaster,  and 

20  *  DD 


466  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

believes  at  first  that  as  Wuz  and  Fixlein  had  both  busied 
themselves  with  literary  amusements,  this  is  only  a  repe- 
tition of  their  characters.  But  Fibel  differs  from  them 
in  this,  that  it  establishes  the  possibility  of  the  happiest 
and  most  joyful  existence  in  the  abdication  of  all  wishes 
and  employments  except  those  connected  with  the'  illu- 
sion. The  hero  seeks  no  honey  except  that  made  from 
the  modest  flowers  of  his  own  little  garden.  This  stands, 
therefore,  in  intimate  connection  and  contrast  with  the 
theme  of  the  serious  romances,  —  the  misery  which  the 
unsatisfied  demands  of  an  over-excited  imagination  occa- 
sion in  the  breast  of  man  being  the  theme  of  some  of  the 
former. 

Between  the  publication  of  Fibel  and  the  Comet  Paul 
had  the  happiness  to  prepare  many  of  his  old  works  for 
new  editions.  We  are  reminded  in  this,  as  well  as  in  his 
love  of  animals,  and  in  many  other  peculiarities,  of  his 
resemblance  to  Sir  Walter  Scott.  It  was  a  woi'k  of  love. 
His  new  editions  were  all  furnished  with  new  prefaces, 
from  which,  as  in  Scott's,  many  humorous  incidents  and 
little  biographical  particulars  may  be  gathered. 

In  the  Comet,  the  other  humorous  romance  of  Richter, 
the  same  idea  (happiness  from  the  illusions  of  life,  ren- 
dered comic  by  the  disproportion  between  the  means  and 
the  end)  lies,  as  with  Fibel,  at  tlie  foundation  of  the 
work.  But  the  conditions  of  happiness,  through  the  pre- 
ponderance of  imagination  in  the  hero  of  the  Comet,  are 
two :  First,  the  power  of  this  fancy  turns  within  upon  the 
possessor,  and  plays  only  before  him  ;  and,  secondly,  hia 
intellectual  power  is  so  limited  that  he  is  not  conscious  of 
the  errors  and  falsehoods  that  his  fancy  impose  upon  him. 
This  seems  to  differ  little  from  the  fixed  idea  of  any  mad- 
man, and  Jean  Paul  might  have  found  a  hero  for  his  ro- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  467 

mancc  in  almost  any  lunatic  asylum.  This  is  the  opposite 
of  that  exalted  fanaticism  of  Emanuel,  Liana,  Linda,  and 
Gustavus,  who  would  bring  into  actual  life  the  ideal  of  a 
higher  existence,  which  is  now  in  contradiction  with  this 
actual  life,  but  hereafter  may  be  the  soundest  wisdom.  To 
such  exaltation  all  poetical  natures  are  more  or  less  in- 
clined. Every  species  of  unrestrained  imagination  leads  to 
innocent  madness  ;  if  from  outwai'd  circumstances  it  has 
not  play  room,  it  concentrates  itself  upon  a  fixed  idea, 
that  has  no  connection  with  the  circumstances  of  actual 
Ufe. 

The  difference  between  Don  Quixote  and  the  hero  of 
the  Comet  is  as  wide  as  the  circumstances  of  the  times 
and  of  their  respective  nations.  Cervantes  placed  the 
eccentricity  of  the  fixed  idea  of  his  hero  close  upon  the 
limits  of  probability,  while  he  unites  with  the  errors  of 
imagination  in  Don  Quixote  a  refined  understanding  and 
extensive  cultivation ;  and  the  satire  turns  ujjon  the  mania 
of  the  people  of  an  age  just  passed.  In  our  times,  the 
fixed  idea  carried  to  such  absurd  extent  would  soon  make 
its  possessor  the  inmate  of  an  asylum. 

Jean  Paul  takes  for  the  hero  of  the  Comet  a  man  whose 
fantasy  has  led  him  from  his  earliest  youth  to  cherish  the 
imagination  that  he  is  the  son  of  a  prince,  and  that  he 
must  so  accomplish  himself  as  to  act  the  prince  through 
life,  and  thus  he  will  find  the  father  upon  whose  throne 
he  expects  to  ascend.  The  psychological  interest,  and 
the  humorous  result,  arise  from  his  efforts  to  conduct 
himself  right  royally  in  the  midst  of  the  most  ludi- 
crous outward  difficulties,  and  surrounded  by  unbeliev- 
ing friends,  who  make  sport  of  him,  and  from  the  blind- 
ness of  his  fixed  idea,  and  his  own  limited  nature,  are 
able  completely  to  govern  him. 


468  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

Nicholas  Margraf  is  the  son  of  parents  wholly  oppo- 
site in  character ;  his  mother,  a  gentle  and  amiable  Cath- 
olic, enthusiastic  in  her  love  for  holy  images,  and  pictures 
of  the  saints,  while  her  husband  is  cold  and  heartless  ;  a 
miser,  wholly  engaged  in  the  avaricious  heaping  up  and 
increase  of  riches,  by  the  gains  of  his  apothecary's 'shop, 
and  little  scrupulous  as  to  the  means.  The  fixed  idea  of 
the  son  must  be  nourished  by  the  lavish  use  of  money ; 
and  this  must  be  obtained  by  making  diamonds  with 
the  chemical  apparatus  furnished  by  the  apothecary's 
business. 

Richter  begins  his  work  in  the  biographical  form,  and, 
as  usual,  with  the  childhood  and  education  of  his  hero. 
He  brings  out  in  rich  profusion  secret  and  avowed  mo- 
tives, and  surrounds  his  hero  with  characters  of  every 
grade  of  humor  and  folly. 

.Jean  Paul  professed  the  artistic  faith,  that  a  fictitious 
character  will  not  engage  the  sympathies  of  the  reader, 
unless  he  creates  a  moral  interest  in  spite  of  his  faults 
and  weaknesses ;  he  therefore  unites  with  his  hero's  lim- 
ited faculties  a  disinterested  desire  to  make  others  happy ; 
and  with  his  superficial  smattering  of  all  the  sciences,  a 
princely  desire  to  lavish  money.  In  the  course  of  the 
work  Paul  touches  with  exquisite  satire  most  of  the  fol- 
lies and  vices  of  the  time.  The  vertigoes  of  education 
and  finance ;  the  follies  of  gold-seeking  and  title-seeking, 
of  proselyte-making  and  system-making ;  the  coquetry  of 
love,  and  the  affectation  of  tlie  fine  arts.  And,  in  this  last 
great  work  he  contended  with  noble  courage,  armed  with 
his  own  weapons,  for  the  political  freedom  of  his  country, 
and  the  object  dearest  to  his  heart,  the  cause  and  the 
freedom  of  the  people. 

In  going  back  to  his  ovm  childhood  to  describe  that  of 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  469 

his  hero,  to  whom  he  gave  the  same  contrasts  between 
the  destitute  present  and  the  anticipated  splendid  future ; 
the  same  fantasy  for  changing  stones  into  gold  that  be- 
longed to  his  own,  Jean  Paul  formed  the  resolution  to 
unite  his  own  life  in  a  peculiar  manner  with  that  of  his 
hero  ;  and  while  he  parodied  the  poetry  in  that  of  Nicho- 
las ]\Iargraf,  to  place  the  actual  life  near  it  as  a  com- 
panion. He  no  doubt  borrowed  the  idea  from  Goeth^s 
Dichtung  und  Wahrheit ;  but  instead  of  interweaving 
them,  as  Goethe  has  done,  the  truth  from  his  own  life 
was  placed  near  its  poetry  in  the  image  of  another.  In 
this  way  only  can  the  comic  tone  and  the  apparent  affec- 
tation of  speaking  in  the  third  person  in  his  Autobiog- 
raphy, be  explained  or  excused.  Richter  apparently 
seized  the  idea  of  appending  liis  own  biography  to  a 
comic  romance,  as  only  under  a  humorous  form  could 
he  lay  bare  before  the  world  his  concealed  emotions, 
his  crushing  poverty,  and  the  low  and  narrow  circum- 
stances of  his  early  life.  But  he  seems  soon  to  have 
found  that  it  was  far  more  agreeable  to  idealize  his  own 
life  under  the  mask  of  his  fictitious  heroes,  as  he  had  al- 
ready done  from  Wuz  to  Fibel,  and  tlius  reflect  upon  it  a 
poetic  splendor,  that  vanished  as  soon  as  the  naked  truth 
was  opposed  to  the  poetical  illusion  ;  he  proceeded,  there- 
fore, only  to  his  thirteenth  year :  afterwards  the  death  of 
his  son,  rendered  the  humorous  form  in  which  he  had 
begun  it,  displeasing  to  him,  and  his  succeeding  blind- 
ness, never  permitted  him  to  resume  it. 

Jean  Paul  had  made  more  extensive  preparation  for 
his  Comet  than  for  any  preceding  work.  The  books 
forming  the  Quarry  consisted  of  sixteen  volumes  of 
twelve  sheets  each.     It  was  left,  as  already  mentioned, 


470 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 


incomplete,  although  German  critics  pronounce  it  one  of 
the  most  artistically  perfect  of  all  the  author's  works.* 


*  To  give  a  complete  analysis  of  Nicholas  Margraf  would  require 
sheets  instead  of  pages,  and  would  be  quite  beyond  the  limits  of  this 
■work. 

In  the  Autobiography  the  reader  has  a  specimen  of  Jean  Paul's 
humorous  style;  the  extract  from  the  Campaner  Thai,  in  the  Appen- 
dix, is  in  his  earnest,  or  what  is  called  his  sentimental  manner;  while 
his  description  of  his  Curland  Visit,  also  in  the  Appendix,  is  a  fair 
specimen  of  Paul's  usual  manner  of  writing. 


CHAPTER    X. 

ElCHTER  VISITS  NUENBURG  ON  ACCOUNT  OF  HIS   EyES.  —  KaNNE.  — 

His  Blindness.  —  Last  Letters.  —  "  Selina." 


CCOMPANIED   by    his    daughter     a.d.i823, 
^,M^y[    Emma,  once  again  only  did   Rich-       -^'-  ^*'- 
'    '      ter   leave   home,  to  visit   a   celebrated   eye- 
surgeon  in  Nurnburfr.     An  extract  from  his 


letter  to  Caroline  must  suffice. 

"  Xurnburg,  August  30,  1823. 
" .  .  .  .  Yesterday,  at  noon,  I  arrived  here.  In  Erlan- 
gen  I  visited  ScheUing,  whose  pleasing  wife  gave  us  tea. 
He  was  full  of  love,  but  cannot  satisfy  me.*  Wednesday 
1  was  with  Kanne  in  his  stove-heated  chamber,  on  ac- 
count of  his  gout.  His  is  a  noble,  splendid  physiognomy. 
The  outer  head  has  won,  through  Christianity,  what  the 
inner  has  lost.  He  received  me  with  heartfelt  love.  But 
in  the  midst  of  his  cheerfulness  he  put  out  his  theological 
sheep's-ears  against  his  art  as  a  physician,  thus  —  'that 
medicine  can  do  no  good,  —  only  help  from  above.'  Of 
objections  the  little  ears  would  hear  nothing.  He  pointed 
with  true  friendly  love  to  my  heart,  and  said  '  he  would 
rely  upon  that  —  that  it  would  be  at  last,' — (namely, 
Kannish).    I  answered,  'that  with  age  I  removed  further 

*  With  his  philosophical  views. 


472  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

from  him.'  lie  said,  'In  the  end  we  shall  see,'  —  I,  'and 
beyond  the  end!'  We  could  live  years  happily  together; 
yet,  without  one  moving  the  smallest  pebble's  weight  of 

the  other Next  week  I  shall  end  my  useless  visit 

here.  My  e}es  will  make  journeying  always  an  empty 
pleasure,  and  the  most  beautiful  days  one  enjoys  better 
at  home.  Here  there  is,  alas !  no  distinguished  head ! 
Among  the  men  not  one.  The  last  time  I  had  Schweig- 
ger,  Pfaif,  Hegel.  But  I  knew  all  this  before,  and  the 
ascendency  of  the  merchants,  and  their  coldness  towards 
poetry  and  philosophy  and  the  arts ;  and  the  want  of  ele- 
vation in  the  women,  that  always  keeps  pace  with  the 
others,  and  on  whose  heads  there  are  rarely  faces  such  as 
one  meets  in  the  Wendelschen  tea-dance  by  the  dozen. 
I  found  only  one  beautiful  exception,  and  was,  on  my  way 
home,  under  the  starry  heavens,  a  little  blessed. 

"  I  knew  all  this  before,  and  therefore  I  remain  in 
the  house,  and  am  glad  when  the  weather  is  somewhat 
bad 

" .  .  .  .  The  people  here  are  well-meaning  and  oblig- 
ing ;  as  the  bookseller  Eichhorn,  who  makes  his  servant 
mine,  and  my  good  old  Osterhausen,  who  will  take  me 

to-morrow  to  a  pleasure-garden The  common  people 

refresh  me  through  their  orderly  appearance  and  their 
true-heartedness. 

"PoorHof!  The  flames  shine  always  horribly  before 
me.  If  one  could  dare  to  think  of  himself  in  sucli  a  calam- 
ity !  But  one  imagines  the  loss  can  be  as  important  no- 
where as  to  himself.  Thus  I  reflect  that,  for  the  second 
time,  all  the  memorials  of  my  youth  are  burnt ;  in  Schwar- 
zenbach  and  in  llof,  and  if  I  sliould  return  tliere,  nothing 
is  left  for  memory  and  reflection,  and  my  youth  has  a 
second  time  passed  away.     We  will  love  each  other  more 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  473 

truly,  my  Caroline,  since  life  is  so  short,  so  full  of  changes, 
so  decaying !  1  greet  ye,  my  dear  children.  Greet  all 
thy  friends  warmly." 

Richter  made  no  more  journeys.  His  increasing  blind- 
ness rendered  all  the  tender  attentions  of  home  necessary, 
if  not  to  his  cheerfulness,  at  least  to  his  daily  comfort. 
He  consulted  many  celebrated  oculists,  tried  glass  after 
glass,  and  many  reputed  healing  remedies  ;  but,  although 
he  parted  with  the  light  of  day  and  his  beloved  occupa- 
tions with  painful  struggles  and  ever-increasing  regret,  he 
was  obliged  at  last  to  feel  that  the  contest  was  hopeless, 
and  resignation  his  latest  duty. 

Once  again  was  he  separated  from  his  wife,  which  gave 
occasion  to  a  few  more  letters,  the  last,  except  a  few  notes, 
that  he  ever  wrote. 

Caroline  never  left  home,  except  upon  some  call  of 
sorrow  or  duty ;  namely,  at  the  death  of  her  father  she 
visited  the  widowed  mother,  and  spent  some  time  in  Ber- 
lin ;  now  slie  was  summoned  to  the  dying  bed  of  her 
sister,  Minna  Spazier,  who  has  been  often  mentioned 
as  supporting  by  literary  exertions  her  young  family  in 
Dresden.  From  scattei'ed  hints  it  would  appear  that 
IVlinna  was  veiy  unhappy  in  her  second  marriage. 

No  reader  can  have  avoided  noticing  the  singular  fact, 
that,  united  as  were  Richter  and  his  wife,  and  apparently 
sympathizing  in  every  agreeable  emotion  and  in  every 
social  enjoyment,  Caroline  was  never  the  companion  of 
those  little  journeys  from  which  Richter  derived  such 
elevation  of  spirits  that  it  would  seem  as  if  the  being  he 
loved  best  must  have  been  indispensable  to  his  complete 
enjoyment.  But  for  this  there  were  many  reasons.  Their 
income  was  never  sufficient  to  permit  them  to  relax  the 
strictest  rules  of  economy  in  their  expenses ;  and,  although 


474  I-IFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  recreation  of  journeying  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
restore  the  powei*s  of  the  author,  exhausted  by  intense 
application  during  ten  months  of  the  year,  Caroline,  in 
her  quiet,  domestic,  feminine  duties,  did  not  require  the 
alleviation  of  novelty  or  pleasure. 

Eichter,  also,  in  all  his  journeys,  was  received  and 
feted  as  a  literaiy  lion,  a  distinguished  author ;  he  was 
patronized  by  people  of  rank,  and  invited  to  the  palaces 
of  princes,  not  on  a  footing  of  equality,  but  as  one  who 
was  expected  by  his  wit  and  celebrity  to  repay  the  con- 
descension and  flattery  graciously  bestowed  upon  him.* 

Jean  Paul  had  less  obsequiousness,  and  a  more  manly 
independence  in  his  intercourse  with  princes  and  nobles 
than  any  foreign  author  with  whose  works  we  are  ac- 
quainted ;  and,  although  it  is  difficult  for  us  in  the  New 
AVorld  to  understand  the  wide  differences  of  rank  in  the 
old  aristocratic  countries,  we  can  easily  imagine  that  to  a 
woman  of  true  nobility  of  soul  and  refined  delicate  feel- 
ings all  condescending  attentions,  that  implied  any  inferi- 
ority in  outward  advantages,  would  have  been  painful 
and  derogatory. 

From  what  we  can  gather  of  the  chai*acter  of  Caroline, 
she  seems  to  have  been  the  guiding  and  protecting  spirit 
of  all  who  came  within  her  influence ;  all  her  journeys 
were  errands  of  mercy,  all  her  letters  messages  of  love. 
She  had  become,  like  those  beautiful  plants  that  ft-om  the 
centre  of  the  flower  send  out  protecting  branches,  that 
shade  and  refresh  after  the  blossom  has  fallen. 

In  this  last  separation  Richter  wrote  to  her  thus :  — 

"June  18,  1824 

"  Beloved  Caroline  :  The  clock-work  of  housekeep 
ing  goes  and  strikes  accurately,  as  you  have  wound  is  up. 
*  See  Appendix. 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  475 

Emma  does  everyfliing  well,  and  takes  excellent  care  of 
me.  She  is  an  excellent  Haiismutter  (house-mother).  The 
children  are  good,  and  every  day  give  me  a  new  joy.  I 
have  nothing  to  wish  but  one  dearer  than  all  tlie  others 
near  me.  We  speak  longingly  of  thee,  and  I  shall  rejoice 
at  your  return,  as  formerly  at  ray  own,  when  so  heavenly 
a  time  always  followed  it." 

Again  :  — 

"  Beloved  Caroline  :  Letter-writing  is,  as  you  know, 
extremely  difficult  on  account  of  the  gray  paper.  The 
sulphur  bath,  for  which  Emma  takes  punctual  care,  works 
excellently,  but  not  immediately  upon  the  eyes  ;  but  read- 
ing, and,  still  more,  writing,  is  impossible,  as  the  light  is 
not  strong  enough. 

"  Ah,  this  melancholy  half-year  of  my  life  !  The  for- 
mer years  of  poverty  and  contempt  were  Sundays  in  com- 
parison. Now,  I  am  deprived  of  so  much,  and  condemned 
to  so  much 

"  Enjoy,  at  least  for  thy  sacrificing  days  a  few  joyful 
hours.  Be  not  too  anxious  for  us  who  are  sound  at 
heart.  Visit  the  terrace  often  at  evening,  and  farewell ! 
farewell ! " 

"  Next  day. 

"  Your  letter  has  touched  and  refreshed  me,  dearest ! 
and  increased  the  longing  for  your  return  that  I  have 
hitherto  concealed.  Exactly  on  the  morning  that,  the 
first  time  for  many  months,  I  went  to  Rolwenzil's,*  your 
heart's  words  delighted  me.  I  must  indeed  suffer  much, 
—  mucli  !  for  as  yet  all  means  help  only  a  little,  or  im- 
perceptibly ;  but  I  firmly  believe  God  will  send  me,  even 
in  this  extremity,  only  what  is  best  for  me ! 

*  The  cottage,  out  of  the  city,  where  Jean  Paul  had  his  study. 


476  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

"  For  God's  sake  provide  a  good  opportunity  to  return. 
Venture  upon  no  risks,  but  think  of  the  poor  children 
Avho  love  thee  so  inexpressibly !  Control  yourself,  and 
take  no  formal  leave  of  Minna,  —  rather  take  none,  and 
tell  her  before  that  you  must  leave  her,  else  she  "will  die 
in  your  arms.  How  do  I  already  rejoice  at  your  relations 
of  your  Dresden  life.  Come,  only,  soon  !  You  uill  be 
received  with  thirsting  love  and  jubilee !  Greet  the 
sufferer.     Thine  !  „  j,  „ 

Thus  adjured,  Caroline  was  obliged  to  leave  the  death- 
bed of  her  sister,  and  when  she  returned  to  her  home  she 
found  her  husband  almost  wholly  deprived  of  the  light. 
His  blindness  obliged  him  to  relinquish  the  hope  of  finish- 
ing Selina,  the  book  upon  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
So  fondly  had  he  cherished  the  hope  of  completing  his 
proofs  of  this  liighest  consolation  of  humanity,  that  he 
seemed  really  to  believe  the  Eternal  Providence  would 
grant  him  time  ;  that  darkness  would  not  fall  upon  him 
until  he  had  made  it  light  to  others  ;  and  in  this  view  he 
withstood  all  indications  of  illness,  and  repelled  any  an- 
ticipations of  death. 

The  dramatic  interest  of  Selina  is  sliglit.  The  char- 
acters of  the  earlier  work,  Campaner  Thai,  are  again 
brought  before  the  reader  with  the  beautiful  addition  of 
Selina,  the  daughter  of  Gione,  of  the  former  work.  The 
pj'oofs  of  immortality  are  drawn  from  the  positive  religious 
belief  of  every  nation,  and  of  all  times  ;  and  Richter 
wislied  to  impart  to  tliem  the  highest  degree  of  complete- 
ness by  poetic  illustration,  as  well  as  by  arguments  of  the 
deepest  philosophy. 

"  There  are  souls,"  he  says,  "  for  whom  life  has  no 
summer.     These  should  enjoy  the  advantages  of  the  in- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  477 

habitants  of  Spitzbergen,  where,  through  the  winter's 
day  the  stars  shine  clear  as  through  the  winter's  night. 
They  should  liave  the  nearest  compensation  for  their 
colder  and  more  distant  sun."  For  such  persons  the 
book  is  written.  "Take  from  the  wounded  soul,  lying  on 
the  sick-bed  of  life,  the  prospect  from  above,  and  he  is 
doubly  unhappy,  and  robbed  and  wounded." 

The  divisions  of  the  book  bear  the  names  of  the 
planets ;  and  it  is  said  in  the  preface,  "  as  Herodotus 
gave  the  divisions  of  his  history,  Goethe  his  Herman  and 
Dorothea,  the  names  of  the  Muses,  so,  on  account  of  the 
greater  number  and  the  inferior  value  of  his  chapters, 
Jean  Paul  gave  them  the  names  of  the  eleven  planets. 
At  least,  he  says  there  is  one  resemblance  in  his  chap- 
ters of  which  the  wandering  stars  need  not  be  ashamed, 
*'  that  these,  as  themselves,  revolve  around  a  sun  as  their 
centre,  which  has  the  double  name  of  God  or  Immortality." 

When  Richter  found  his  strength,  as  already  men- 
tioned, rapidly  failing,  instead  of  going  on  to  the  comple- 
tion of  the  whole  work,  he  did  what  he  had  never  done 
in  any  former  work,  went  back  and  revised  and  improved 
the  five  planets,  or  first  chapters  ;  and  a  few  weeks  before 
his  death  said,  with  a  deeply  melancholy  tone,  entirely 
unusual  to  him,  "•  that  now  these  chapters  were  ready 
for  printing."  This  was  the  more  remarkable,  as  he  was 
apparently  unconscious  of  the  near  approach  of  death, 
and,  although  he  despaired  of  ever  seeing  the  light  again, 
he  hoped  by  the  help  of  an  amanuensis,  to  complete  the 
numerous  works  already  planned. 

The  last  words  he  ever  penned,  except  a  short  note  to 
Otto,  and  these  with  trembling  hand,  the  lines  running 
into  each  other  and  almost  illegible,  were  :  "  Knowing 
each  other  again  (in  a  future  world)  is  the  cardinal  point 


478  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

of  immortality,  as  many  paternosters  close  with  a  relic." 
"  Life  departs  not  from  the  soul,  but  in  the  soul.  It 
lays  its  organic  sceptre  down,  and  dismisses  the  world 
that  had  hitherto  served  it,  or  rather  it  abandons  its 
empire." 

Thus  unfinished,  the  work  was  hidden  from  Richter's 
eyes,  that  yet  lay  so  warmly  at  liis  heart  that  he  wrote 
by  the  hand  of  his  wife  to  her  nephew,  Otto  Spazier,  to 
lend  him  his  eyes  and  pen  for  its  completion.  He  closes 
his  letter  thus  :  — 

"  I  expect  a  delightful  life  with  you.  Every  morning 
till  ten  o'clock  you  shall  be  left  to  your  own  studies  ; 
then  I  shall  request  you  also  to  lend  me  your  eyes,  if  not 
your  hand,  for  the  chaos  of  my  library.  We  will  read  a 
little,  copy  a  little,  talk  a  little,  be  a  little  joyful,  and  that 

is  all  I  ex[)ect  from  you You  cannot  guess  what  a 

balsam  your  arrival  will  be  for  my  wounded  eyes,  and 
for  the  half  of  my  life  crushed  by  destiny ! " 

"  Such  a  call  from  the  immortal  old  man,  as  it  entered 
my  solitary  apartment,"  says  his  nephew,  "  filled  me  with 
delight.  The  reverend  image  of  his  beautiful  old  age,  a 
just  reward  for  a  holy  life,  rose  before  me,  and  with  joyful 
haste  I  travelled  through  the  wet  days  of  October,  and 
entered  liis  study  on  the  evening  of  the  twenty-fourth  of 
that  month.  Tlie  same  joyful  tremor  affected  me  as  for- 
merly, when  at  the  twilight  hour,  I  had  listened  here  with 
his  family  to  his  voice  of  wisdom.  The  windows  of  his 
room  looked  towards  the  rising  sun,  and  far  over  the 
garden  and  over  scattered  trees  and  houses  towards  the 
Fichtelgebirge,  that  bounded  the  horizon.  A  mingled 
perfume  of  flowers  and  grapes  led  the  fancy  to  southern 
climes,  to  beautiful  blue  June  days,  or  to  the  vintage  on 
the  Rhine.     In  the  middle  of  the  room  stood  a  tarnished 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  479 

repositorium,  with  iron  fastenings,  heaped  to  the  brim 
with  manuscripts  and  extracts.  His  sof;i,  where  he 
usually  read  in  a  reclining  posture,  was  opposite  this  win- 
dow, and  before  it  his  writing-table,  upon  which  appeared 
a  regular  confusion  of  pens,  paper  of  all  colors,  glasses, 
flowers,  books,  among  which  last  were  the  small  English 
editions  of  Swift  and  Sterne.  At  the  other  window  stood 
a  small  piano,  and  near  this  a  smaller  table.  Depending 
from  the  cage  of  his  birds  was  a  little  ladder,  that  led  to 
his  own  work-table,  where  the  birds  were  permitted  to 
roam  among  the  confusion,  sprinkling  with  water  from  the 
flower-glass  the  sheet  upon  which  the  poet  was  writing. 
Often  was  Paul  seen  to  stop  in  his  most  excited  passages, 
to  let  his  little  canary  with  her  young  travel  undisturbed 
over  the  page,  where  the  water  she  scattered  from  her 
feathers  mingled  with  the  ink  from  his  pen.  In  the  cor- 
ner of  the  room  was  a  door  by  which,  unobserved,  Richter 
could  descend  the  steps  into  the  garden,  and  on  a  cushion 
near  it  rested  his  white,  silky-haired  poodle.  A  hunting- 
pocket  and  rosewood  staff  hung  near.  All  three  had  often 
been  the  companions  of  his  wanderings,  when,  on  beauti- 
ful days  he  went  through  the  chestnut  avenue  to  the  little 
Rolwenzil  cottage. 

"  All  in  the  room  retained  its  usual  position,  but  the  rul- 
ing hand  appeared  to  have  been  absent.  The  light  was 
shaded,  and  the  windows  hung  with  green  curtains  ;  the 
robust  form  that  in  former  years,  even  before  the  snow- 
drop had  loosened  the  icy  crust  of  winter,  had  worked 
long  hours  with  uncovered  breast  in  the  open  air,  lay 
supported  with  cushions,  and  shrouded  in  furs  upon  the 
sofa ;  his  body  drawn  together  and  eyes  forever  closed. 
"  Heaven,"  said  he,  "  chastens  me  with  a  double  rod,  and 
one  is  a  heavy  cudgel  1  (meaning  his  blindness  ;)  but  I 


480  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

shall  be  well  again  now.  Ah  !  we  have  so  much  to  say 
and  to  do.  But  we  shall  have  a  thousand  hours,  —  at 
least,  minutes."  His  voice  was  weaker,  his  words  slower, 
and  it  cut  me  to  the  heart  to  hear  him  speak  of  himself. 
It  was  late,  —  and  soon  his  wife,  ever  watchful,  called  me 
away,  to  return  to  him  again  in  the  morning." 

Early  the  next  morning  he  began  a  complete  re\nsion 
of  his  works.  The  nephew  read  aloud,  and  Paul  inserted 
his  alterations.  When  Spazier  thought  one  necessary, 
he  indicated  it  by  pausing,  to  draw  his  attention.  With 
great  mildness  and  patience  Paul  listened  to  every  objec- 
tion ;  and  himself  related,  explained,  praised,  and  blamed. 
He  reconsidered  and  over-lived  thus  his  whole  spiritual 
life  in  his  works.  In  the  illustrations  scattered  tlirough 
his  sixty-four  volumes,  of  which,  indeed,  every  page  is 
filled,  he  found  only  two  or  tln-ee  were  repeated. 

The  arrival  of  his  nephew,  and  tlie  hope  of  completing 
Selina,  and  the  revision  of  the  new  edition  of  his  works, 
gave  new  life  to  Richter.  Great  indeed  was  his  joy, 
as  they  were  read  to  him,  that  he  could  assert,  he  had 
never  written  a  line  against  virtue,  or  one  that  for  this 
reason  he  could  wish  to  blot.  But  he  soon  began  to  per- 
fect rather  those  that  he  considered  unfinished  than  to 
continue  his  new  works ;  and  we  must  ever  regret  that 
he  left  his  Autobiography  unfinished ;  that  he  went  home 
before  he  had  given  us  this  golden  key  to  his  works ;  the 
psychological  unfolding  of  his  poetic  nature ;  the  impres- 
sion that  the  ever-changing  scenes  of  life  and  litei'ature 
had  made  upon  him  since  his  childhood.  This  he  in- 
tended to  make  a  memorial  of  gratitude  to  those  great 
men,  Gleim,  Herder,  and  Jacobi,  to  whom  he  felt  himself 
so  much  indebted.  He  liad  already  spoken  earnestly  of 
his  eternal  gratitude  to  Gleim,  for  the  timely  present  of 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  481 

fifty  dollars  ;  and  he  intended  to  give  a  full-length  picture 
of  the  princely  form  of  Herder,  and  to  illustrate  his  char- 
acter with  beams  of  light.  But,  alas  !  it  was  now  too  late. 
His  weakness  increased  so  rapidly  that  he  was  obliged 
to  resign,  but  with  all  possible  submission,  the  design  of 
continuing  any  of  his  works.  He  withdrew  from  all  self- 
activity,  and  gave  up  the  pleasure  of  speaking  of  subjects 
that  in  his  circumstances  would  have  had  only  an  egotis- 
tical interest,  and  devoted  himself  for  the  short  remainder 
of  life  to  the  happiness  of  those  about  him.  The  long, 
dark  days  of  November  were  cheered  by  reading.  The 
books  that  until  the  last  he  delighted  most  to  listen  to 
were  HerbarCs  Psychology  and  Herder's  Philosopliy  of  the 
History  of  3fan.  When  wearied  of  these,  he  desired  to 
smile  at  some  humorous  work,  and  his  nephew  laments 
that  German  literature  is  so  poor  in  books  of  this  kind. 

At  this  moment  rose  higher  than  ever  within  our  Rich- 
ter  the  apostle  John's  power  of  love.  Age  often  serves 
the  heart  as  it  does  the  outward  form,  takes  from  it  the 
fulness  and  tenderness  of  sympathy,  and  leaves  it  hard 
and  shai'ply  angular ;  but  in  the  heart  of  Jean  Paul  love 
was  a  plant  that  found  ever  a  richer  and  a  warmer  soil, 
disclosed  continually  new  buds  and  blossoms,  spread  its 
roots  and  fibres  always  farther,  and  extended,  in  his  last 
days,  the  perfumed  shadow  that  gave  him  peace  and 
blessed  dreams. 

He  sat,  as  Spazier  describes  him,  like  an  innocent, 
tranquil  child,  with  the  firmest  confidence  in  God  and  in 
future  good,  although  the  present  was  sinking  around 
him.  His  own  pain  only  increased  his  interest  in  the 
joys  of  others.  His  weakness,  that  denied  him  acts  of 
love,  impelled  him  to  express  more  fully  the  language 
of  affection,  that  had  been  till  now  concealed  in  actions. 

21  ££ 


482  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

The  fiiends  who  visited  him  never  heard  a  complaint 
over  his  blindness ;  but  to  anxious  questioning  he  an- 
swered with  low,  but  cheerful,  hopeful,  signification. 
When  others,  thinking  to  conceal  from  hiq;!  his  situation, 
spoke  of  hopes  and  joys  for  the  future,  he  drew  them 
immediately  to  subjects  of  more  univei-sal  interest.  Self- 
forgetting,  he  would  speak  to  his  visitors  of  any  other 
subject.  As  this  was  the  time  of  the  so-called  freedom's 
contest  in  Gennany,  deeply  as  his  true  German  heart 
had '  been  directed  to  the  interests  of  freedom,  now  its 
beams  spread  a  glow  in  his  evening  sky. 

As  his  eyes  were  extinguished  and  expression  denied 
him  through  this  organ,  he  sought  by  a  more  tender  tone 
of  voice  to  draw  others  to  his  heart,  and  when  his  voice 
also  failed,  love  pervaded  the  whole  exjiression  of  his 
countenance.  His  cheerfulness  was  much  increased  when 
one  or  two  friends  were  added  to  his  domestic  circle. 
Otto  or  Emanuel  came  almost  every  evening.  They 
clustered  around  his  sofa,  and  here,  like  an  electric  spark, 
he  kindled  all  about  liira.  Every  new  thought  received 
from  liiin  organization,  and  lie  ever  suggested  something 
new ;  his  pictiu'e-language  never  wearied ;  and  the  de- 
parture of  his  fi-iends  was  always  too  early.  One  even- 
ing the  conversation  turned  upon  the  sense  of  smell,  and 
Richter  mentioned  how  strongly  the  recollection  of  per- 
fumes excited  the  imagination.  lie  said,  "  that  his  father, 
sometimes,  in  his  boyhood,  shut  him  into  his  room,  and 
that  when  he  went  again  into  the  open  air  he  met  the 
fumes  of  the  tobacco  the  carpenters  smoked,  and  that 
tobacco  now  ])rought  l)ack,  like  the  sound  of  the  cowbell, 
his  whole  childhood  before  his  soul.  Through  the  sense 
of  smell,  as  its  impressions  are  so  undecided,  tlie  romantic 
is  singularly  excited.       Schiller  always  rejoiced  in  per- 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  483 

fumes,  while  Goethe,  the  phistic  artist,  was  more  inter- 
ested by  the  form  of  the  nose.  Smell  is  the  most  refined 
of  the  senses.  A  gentle  and  refined  Indian  would  think 
us  all  oHeiisivje  animals.  Herder  had  the  most  delicate 
sense  ol"  smell,  but  in  everything  he  was  an  elephant." 
With  this  one  word  Richter  delineated  Herder's  great- 
ness, his  delicate  oi'gauization,  which  also  distinguishes 
the  elephant  among  animals,  and  his  Indian  nature. 

In  the  last  weeks  of  his  life  he  could  take  a  less  active 
part  in  the  conversation,  on  account  of  the  weakness  of 
his  voice.  For  this  he  often  toucliingly  asked  pardon ; 
and  Caroline  sat  with  her  ear  close  to  him,  to  interpret 
to  those  less  accustomed  to  his  accents. 

Eight  days  before  his  death  the  darkest  night  settled 
upon  him.  Even  then  he  sat  patiently,  trusting  the  com- 
ing spring  would  bring  again  for  him  the  warm  sun,  and 
the  blue  heaven,  and  the  eternal  stars.  Many  times  he 
raised  his  darkened  eyes  to  tlie  window,  hoping  a  faint 
ray  would  pierce  the  gloom ;  once  only  his  pain  broke 
out  in  words,  as  his  friends  were  lamenting  the  helpless- 
ness of  his  situation,  that  prevented  him  from  seeking 
relief  for  his  other  infirmities.  The  thought  for  a  mo- 
ment overpowered  him,  and  in  the  most  touching  voice 
he  cried  out  with  Ajax  in  the  Iliad, 

"  Light!  light  only,  then  may  the  enemy  come!  " 

The  extraordinary  talent  for  music  that  Richter  pos- 
sessed has  often  been  mentioned.  When  weary  with 
thought,  he  would  seat  himself  at  the  instrument,  and 
.with  an  accompaniment  on  the  keys  with  one  hand,  he 
would  translate  with  the  other  the  emotions  that  filled 
his  mind.  "\Ylien  they  were  tender,  he  as  well  as  all  who 
heard  hiin  would  break  out  in  tears,  till  all  hearts  were 
melted.     The  music  of  others  also  affected  liira  deeply, 


484  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

and  once  in  a  large  party  he  could  not  restrain  his  tears, 
when  Migno7is  song  was  sung  bj  a  young  lady. 

Tn  the  evening,  during  this  last  dark  period,  when  the 
day  had  exhausted  him,  he  longed  for  the  refreshment 
of  music ;  but  the  voices  of  his  children  overpowered  him, 
and  his  father's  heai*t  wept  at  their  simplest  tones ;  but 
when  in  the  next  apartment  the  sounds  appeared  to  come 
from  a  distance,  he  could  listen  to  the  voices  that  he  loved. 
Then  he  would  turn  his  face  towards  the  wall,  and  earth 
and  sorrow  were  forgotten,  while  he  flew  with  the  sounds 
to  fairer  climes  and  flowers  and  mountains  and  beautiful 
forms.  When  his  family  returned,  they  would  find  liim 
sitting  upright  on  the  sofa,  and  in  his  face  were  the 
traces  of  emotion  that  his  darkened  eyes  could  no  longer 
express. 

Schubai't's  splendid  composition  of  the  music  of  the 
Erl  King,  "  Thou  dear  child !  come,  go  with  me,"  Zel- 
ter's  song  of  the  Harper  in  Meister,  and  the  many-voiced 
little  song  of  the  people,  "  So  many  stars  are  in  the  sky," 
and  many  of  Goethe's  songs  lulled  him  so  blessedly,  that 
they  seemed  to  exert  a  wonderful  physical  power  on  his 
well-being.  One  evening  he  said  it  was  as  if,  during  the 
singing,  some  one  had  drawn  over  him  a  soft  and  warm 
mantle,  and  when  the  sounds  ceased,  he  wondered  to  find 
no  covering  upon  him.  He  was  deejdy  moved  one  even- 
ing, when  a  young  girl  sung  a  Spanish  song  before  his 
door,  accompanied  by  the  guitar.  It  brought  the  south 
into  his  winter  apartment,  and  excited  and  warmed  his 
fancy. 

Richter  went  every  morning  to  his  study,  and  continued 
revising  with  his  nephew  the  new  edition  of  his  works, 
until  from  weakness  of  the  breast  his  voice  could  no 
longer  be  heard.     The  soul  seemed  to  have  withdrawn 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  485 

from  all  the  external  orcrans,  and  to  communicate  with 
the  outward  -world  only  through  tlie  ear ;  the  eye  was 
turned  inwai'd  upon  the  soul,  and  his  biographer  says  : 
"  The  volume  of  the  noble  brow  seemed  to  expand  still 
more,  as  if  thought  sat  visibly  upon  it ;  the  outline  of 
the  delicate  nose  became  more  beautiful,  and  around 
the  firmly  closed  mouth  the  most  amiable  mildness 
played.  That  which  has  come  to  us  from  tradition  of 
the  bust  of  Plato ;  what  the  saints  have  told  us  of  the 
expression  of  the  holy  Christ  hovered  upon  his  face. 
Deprived  of  the  veil  of  human  senses,  with  which  the 
earth  protects  the  dwelling-place  of  thought,  the  beau- 
tiful form  spoke  only  of  the  spirit,  and  of  immortality ;  a 
tremor  of  reverence  filled  the  heart  of  the  spectator,  and, 
unconsciously,  the  hands  were  folded  as  if  in  prayer ; 
every  one  who  entered  spoke  softly,  as  if  in  the  presence 
of  a  holy  being." 

On  the  morning  of  the  14th  of  November,  when  hig 
nephew  came  down,  Richter  for  the  first  time  was  absent 
from  his  study.  Spazier  found,  him  in  the  apartment  of 
his  wife,  and,  although  early,  Otto  and  his  physician  were 
with  them.  Caroline  sat  with  her  ear  close  to  the  mouth 
of  her  husband,  for  she  only  could  now  understand  the 
well-known  but  imperfect  accents.  He  said  "  good  morn- 
ing "  when  his  nephew  entered,  for  his  hearing  was  still 
acute. 

Through  the  perpetual  night  about  him,  and  the  irregu- 
larity of  his  repose,  Richter  had  lost  the  consciousness  of 
the  course  of  time,  and  thought  it  was  already  evening, 
lie  was  confirmed  in  tliis  impression  by  the  presence  of 
the  physician,  who  usually  made  his  visit  in  the  evening, 
and  not  to  make  him  more  uneasy  they  humored  the 
error,  and  did  not  try  to  undeceive  him. 


486  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

His  nephew  read  the  newspaper  to  him,  and  some  pas- 
sages from  Herder's  spiritual  works  ;  but  he  seemed  this 
day  to  thirst  more  than  ever  for  the  voices  of  his  wife  and 
children ;  liis  youngest  daughter  climbed  perpetually  on 
the  back  of  his  chair,  and  held  her  youthful  face  dose  to 
his.  The  son  of  Herder  came  in  ;  and  it  so  happened  that 
just  at  this  time  the  transfer  of  the  Princess  of  Lucca  took 
place  in  Bayreuth.  The  incident  w^as  more  noticed  be- 
cause it  was  to  the  same  Saxon  Prince  Max,  the  transfer 
of  whose  first  wife,  also  an  Italian  princess,  Jean  Paul 
had  described  in  Hesperus.  So  remarkable  a  coincidence 
could  not  escai)e  a  poet,  who  professed,  as  Richter,  to  be- 
lieve in  the  duality  of  all  things.  Young  Herder  told 
him  that  the  bust  of  the  prince,  as  the  portrait  in  Hes- 
perus, accompanied  the  pi-incess,  borne  in  a  sedan-cliair, 
and,  what  appears  infinitely  comic,  dined  and  reposed 
wherever  the  princess  rested.  This  led  the  conversa- 
tion to  Hesperus,  and  Richter  Avhispered  many  alterations 
he  intended  to  make  in  that  work,  and,  said  it  had  failed 
totally  of  the  object  he  wished  to  accomplish  in  writing  it. 

Noon  had  by  this  time  arrived.  Richter,  thinking  it 
was  night,  said,  "  It  was  time  to  go  to  rest,"  and  wished 
to  retire.  He  was  wheeled  into  his  sleeping  aj)artmcnt, 
and  all  wa*?  niranged  as  if  for  repose  ;  a  small  table  near 
his  bed,  with  a  glass  of  water  and  his  two  watches,  a 
common  one  and  a  repeater.  His  wife  now  brought  him 
a  wreath  of  flowers  that  a  lady  had  sent  him,  for  every 
one  wished  to  add  some  charm  to  his  last  days.  As  he 
touched  them  carefully,  for  he  could  neither  see  nor  smell 
them,  he  seemed  to  rejoice  in  the  images  of  the  flowers  in 
his  mind,  lor  he  said  rej)eatedly  to  Cai-oline,  "  My  beauti- 
ful flowers,  my  lovely  flowers  ! " 

Although  his  friends  sat  around  the  bed,  as  he  imagined 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  487 

it  was  niglit,  they  conversed  no  longer;  he  arranged 
his  arras  as  if  preparing  for  repose,  which  was  to  be  to 
him  the  repose  of  death,  and  soon  sank  into  a  tranquil 
sleep. 

Deep  silence  pervaded  the  apartment.  Caroline  sat  at 
the  head  of  the  bed,  with  her  eyes  immovably  fixed  on 
the  face  of  her  beloved  husband.  Otto  had  retired,  and 
the  nephew  sat  with  Plato's  Phcedon  in  his  hand,  open  at 
the  death  of  Socrates.  At  that  moment  a  tall  and  beau- 
tiful form  entered  the  chamber ;  and,  at  the  foot  of  the 
bed,  with  his  hands  raised  to  heaven  and  deeply  moved, 
he  repeated  aloud  the  prayer  of  his  Mosaic  faith.  It  was 
Emanuel,  and,  next  to  Otto,  the  most  beloved  of  Richter's 
friends. 

About  six  o'clock  the  physician  entered.  Richter  yet 
appeared  to  sleep ;  his  features  became  every  moment 
holier,  his  brow  more  heavenly,  but  it  was  cold  as  marble 
to  the  touch ;  and  as  the  tears  of  his  wife  fell  upon  it,  he 
remained  immovable.  At  length  his  respiration  became 
less  regular,  but  his  features  always  calmer,  more  heav- 
enly. A  slight  convulsion  passed  over  the  face  ;  the  phy- 
sician cried  out,  "  That  is  death ! "  and  all  was  quiet. 
The  spirit  had  departed! 

All  sank,  praying,  upon  their  knees.  This  moment, 
that  raised  them  above  the  earth  with  the  departing 
spirit,  admitted  of  no  tears  ! 

*'  Tlius  Richter  went  from  earth,  great  and  holy  as  a 
poet,  greater  and  holier  as  a  man ! " 

Involuntarily  we  recall  the  death-bed  of  another  great 
poet,  on  that  delicious  summer's  day  when  the  windows 
were  all  open,  and  the  only  sound  the  ripple  of  the  Tweed 
upon  its  stony  bed.  Here,  in  the  midst  of  winter,  a  deeper 
repose  must  have  consecrated  the  death-bed  of  Richter,  as 


4»8  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

if  Nature  herself  stood  reverently  still  when  her  worship- 
per and  interpreter  laid  down  the  _2;arnient  in  which  he 
had  ministered  in  her  temple. 

Richter  was  buried  by  torch-lia:ht :  the  unfinished  man- 
uscript of  Selina  borne  upon  his  coffin,  and  the  noble  ode 
of  Klopstock,  — 

"  Thou  shalt  arise,  my  Soul!  " 

sung  by  the  students  of  the  Gymnasium  at  the  burial- 
vault. 

Otto  could  not  survive  his  loss.  He  lived  only  a  few 
months,  in  order  to  arrange  the  unfinished  slieets  of 
Selina  ;  and  then,  in  secret  mourning,  followed  the  de- 
pai-ted  friend. 


CONCLUSION 


HAVE  now  finished  my  task,  and  I  might 
safely  leave  the  biography  of  Richter  to  make 
its  impression  upon  the  reader  without  one 
word  of  commentary  ;  but,  like  Otto,  I  linger 
by  the  tomb  of  my  friend,  unwilling  to  pait  with  him  who 
has  been  my  companion  so  long. 

I  have  not  the  presumption  to  imagine  that  I  can  en- 
lighten those  who  have  had  opportunities  to  study  the 
works  of  Jean  Paul,  from  which  alone  his  character  can 
be  appreciated ;  but  in  this  country  it  has  been  the  cus- 
tom to  contrast  him  with  Goethe,  and  to  class  them  as 
belonging  to  opposite  schools  in  literature.  They  are, 
indeed,  widely  different,  but  the  one  need  not  blind  us  to 
the  excellence  of  the  other.  They  were  widely  different 
in  their  lives.  Goethe  grew  up  in  a  happy  home,  where 
the  genial  disposition  of  his  mother,  who  used  playfully 
to  say,  "  her  AYolfgang  and  herself  were  of  the  same  age," 
(in  fact,  he  was  born  in  her  seventeenth  year,)  led  him  to 
enjoy  every  natural  good,  every  innocent  pleasure  ;  while 
Jean  Paul,  born  in  poverty,  brought  up  in  almost  ascetic 
frugality,  tended  by  a  mother  so  sorrow-bowed,  so  fearful 
of  joy  that  she  could  not  even  understand  her  gifted  son's 
fame ;  living  in  an  obscure  village  with  few  associates, 

21* 


490  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

and  none  superior  to  himself,  so  that  he  could  form  no 
impartial  and  accurate  estimation  of  himself,  differed  in 
this  as  in  every  other  respect  from  Goethe.  Goethe 
stood  upon  an  elevation  above  his  fellows,  attained  by 
what  the  Germans  call  universality,  the  power  of  Qbserv- 
ing  all  the  bearings  and  points  of  the  times,  from  an 
elevation  far  above  them  all. 

The  difference  between  Goethe  and  Richter  is  not  more 
striking  than  the  anomaly  in  the  character  of  each,  and 
the  discrepancy  between  that  character  and  their  works. 
Goethe,  whose  classical  culture  would  not  allow  him  to 
violate  the  unities,  whose  polished  exterior  gave  him  the 
appearance  of  a  Grecian  god,  in  private  life  permitted 
himself  much  license,  and  of  his  associates  would  cry  out, 
"  0  that  they  had  the  heart  to  commit  some  absurdity ! " 
while  Jean  Paul,  in  his  works  so  wild  and  luxuriant,  that 
he  might  be  compared  to  a  great,  gnarled  oak,  making 
grand  music  in  its  branches  as  they  stretched  towards 
heaven,  while  the  little  singing-birds  nestled  in  its  leaves  ; 
in  private  life  hedged  himself  round  with  rules  and  reso- 
lutions, and  all  the  safeguards  of  order  and  form.  His 
journals  are  tilled  with  reiterated  regulations,  and  ex- 
pressions of  repentant  sorrow  whenever  he  violated  the 
least  of  them.  It  was  safe  for  Goethe  to  allow  himself 
the  seductions  of  social  and  polished  life ;  but  Richter, 
whose  great  and  irregular  nature  was  always  breaking 
through  the  jjolished  border  of  conventionalism,  planted 
himself  around  with  the  thorny  hedge  of  minute  observ- 
ances. Goethe  needed  no  rules,  no  restraints ;  he  was  in 
no  danger  of  the  discourteous  developments  of  a  generous 
manhood ;  his  nature  was  polished  to  elegance.  If  he 
ever  struggled,  "  the  graces,"  as  Bettine  said,  "  kept  him 
prisoner." 


LIFE   OF  JEAN  PAUL.  49I 

He  needed  no  reiterated  hints  in  his  journal  to  do 
everything  in  its  season,  and  keep  everything  in  its  place  ; 
the  clockwork  of  his  nature  went  neither  too  fast  nor  too 
slow,  and  struck  the  hour  at  the  exact  second,  while  the 
virtue  of  neatness  was  in  him  almost  sublime. 

Richter's  life  may  be  divided  into  three  epochs,  and  his 
works  into  three  corresponding  divisions.  The  first,  that 
of  pure  satire,  terminated  with  the  writing  of  the  "  Con- 
tented Schoolmaster." 

The  infancy  and  early  youth  of  Richter  alone  were 
genial  and  poetical.  Fi'om  his  entrance  into  the  Hof 
gjTiinasium,  through  his  Leipzig  life,  he  was  struggling 
with  actual  want,  and  opposing  an  iron  resolution  to  an 
adverse  destiny.  At  this  time  a  cold  scepticism  shrouded 
his  mind  ;  he  had  not  broken  the  crust  of  tliat  merely  in- 
tellectual period  of  his  life,  when  the  buds  of  his  fancy 
and  all  the  warm  springs  of  his  heart  were  imprisoned  by 
the  ice  of  an  ungenial  belief.  At  this  time,  his  French 
and  English  studies  led  him  to  Pope,  Shaftesbury,  Swift, 
Rabelais,  and  the  Encylopedists.  He  wrote  only  satires. 
To  give  interest  to  these  essays,  that  were  without  all 
poetical  or  dramatic  charm,  he  acquired  his  peculiar  man- 
ner of  writing,  crowded  his  page  with  figures,  comparisons, 
and  antithesis ;  ransacked  heaven  and  hell,  and  all  the 
regions  of  earth  for  illustrations,  anecdotes,  proverbs,  and 
quaint  expressions,  and  acquired  what  Cai'lyle  has  called 
his  claptrap  manner.  This  manner  was  foreign  and  arti- 
ficial, for  his  private  journal,  written  at  this  period,  is  free 
from  everything  of  the  kind.  This  manner  of  writing 
became  a  second  nature  ;  he  says  himself,  he  could  not 
help  it,  "  that  his  figures  and  illustrations  were  like  mice 
let  out  of  a  trap,  one  caught  hold  of  the  tail  of  the  other 
in  interminable  succession." 


492  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

The  usual  theme  of  Richter's  satires  is  the  contrast  of 
the  infinite  in  man's  breast  with  the  low  and  narrow  cir- 
cumstances in  which  he  is  placed,  and  in  this  early  period 
it  is  treated  with  the  bitter  and  cutting  coldness  of  a 
sarcastic  laugh. 

But  his  soul  was  soon  unsatisfied.  He  began  to  long 
after  his  inheritance.  He  could  no  longer  quiet  his  thirst 
after  a  higher  good  with  a  scornful  laugh.  We  find  in 
bis  journal  that,  "  he  laid  long  hours  in  the  night  upon 
the  dewy  grass,  and  longed  to  allay  the  thirst  of  his  soul 
by  looking  into  the  starry  heavens.  When  he  arose  and 
saw  the  impression  his  body  had  made  upon  the  grass,  he 
thought  of  his  grave,  and  the  flowers  thus  pressed  to- 
gether ;  the  terror  of  annihilation  seized  him  with  iron 
hand.  Then  came  the  warm  beams  of  the  arisen  sun ; 
and  the  blessed  thought  of  God  and  his  love  to  man,  that 
would  burst  the  gate  of  the  grave  ;  and  his  sunken  heart 
rose  again." 

Such  moments  sometimes  occur  in  life,  when  a  strong 
and  powerful  emotion  has  the  effect  of  the  most  startling 
events.  We  know  not  whether  Richter  meant  to  repre- 
sent this  moment  as  a  turning  from  darkness  to  light ; 
but  the  death  of  his  two  youthful  friends,  tliat  occurred  at 
this  period,  fixed  his  thoughts  upon  immortality,  and  a 
strenuous  exertion  freed  his  soul  from  its  fetters.  Now, 
he  turned  back  in  imagination  to  his  childhood  in  Joditz 
and  Schwarzenbach,  and  it  appeared  in  the  ever-increas- 
ing light  of  poetry  ;  the  perfume  of  his  cliildish  faith  and 
early  education  was  again  breathed  into  liis  life.  Now, 
his  heart  began  to  overflow  with  emotion,  and  bitter  i)ain 
at  a  misdirection  of  his  talents,  that  had  deprived  his 
youth  of  elevation  and  spiritual  joy.  He  had  no  longer 
before  his  mind  the  cold  conception  of  the  follies  of  fools 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  493 

and  simpletons,  but  also  the  disajipointments  and  fond 
longings  of  the  suffering  and  good.  IIow  significant  is 
this  passage  in  his  journjd  of  November,  in  this  year : 
"And  you,  my  brothers,  I  will  love  more,  I  will  create 
for  you  more  joy.  I  will  give  up  my  greater  plans,  and 
limit  my  endeavors  to  make  you  cheerful,  and  turn  my 
comic  powers  no  longer,  as  hitherto,  to  torment  you.  I 
will  use  my  art  to  make  myself  cheerful,  to  content  my- 
self with  every  necessary  limitation  ;  and  thus  to  win  joy 
for  you.  I  will  make  you  happy  by  imparting  what  I 
have  hitherto  gained.  Fantasy  and  wit  shall  be  united  to 
find  consolation,  cheerfulness,  and  joys  in  the  most  limited 
of  life's  relations."  The  result  of  this  holy  purpose  of  his 
life  were  the  works,  beginning  with  Wuz  and  ending  only 
with  the  Selina.  Few  have  been  like  him,  faithful  to  a 
great  idea.  He  had,  as  we  have  seen,  consecrated  him- 
self to  instructing  his  countrymen  through  the  press,  and 
no  office,  no  emolument,  no  honor,  seduced  him.  In  his 
cold  and  hungry  hut,  in  his  humble  school,  he  wrought 
out  in  patience  and  solitude  the  gems  that  he  afterwards 
joyfully  produced.  He  surrendered  his  soul  to  God,  and 
his  life  became  in  harmony  with  the  true,  the  beautiful, 
the  good. 

The  very  limited  relations  in  which  Richter  stood  with 
others,  the  poverty  of  incidents  in  his  life,  the  few  char- 
acters he  knew,  the  small  number  from  which  he  could 
choose  his  hero,  compelled  him  to  go  back  to  his  early 
recollections ;  and  his  memory  and  fantasy  supplied  him 
with  a  model  that  answered  to  the  wants  of  his  soul,  that 
in  poetry,  as  in  life  now,  thirsted  for  love.  Wuz  is  the 
embryo  of  a  whole  succession  of  such  characters  appear- 
ing in  Jean  Paul's  after  romances.  He  is  the  first  result 
of  the  author's  creative  imagination,  and  the  transition 


494  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

from  his  satirical  to  his  serious,  earnest  works.  In  this 
conception  is  tirst  apparent  tlie  so  much  talked-of  double 
nature  of  Richter,  the  contradiction,  the  contest  of  form 
with  tendency.  Richter  had  not  in  the  beginning  of  bis 
change  the  courage  to  manifest  his  feelings  and  emptions. 
He  was  ashamed  to  open  his  heart  to  the  public ;  he  is, 
therefore,  in  his  work,  through  ridiculous  follies  in  Wuz, 
constantly  interrupting  the  earnest  impression  of  the 
work.  But  although  he  had  freed  by  this  exertion  his 
earnest  creative  power  from  the  mastery  of  the  comic  and 
familiar,  the  process  took  place  too  late  for  the  comic  ever 
to  be  entirely  subjected.  The  contest  continued  through 
all  his  serious  works,  and  takes  the  form  hi  ^them  of  the 
most  genial  humor.  He  compares  this  tendency  of  his 
nature  to  the  bird  Merops,  whose  tail  is  turned  towards 
heaven,  but  in  this  direction  continues  to  rise. 

The  second  peculiarity  of  Wuz,  which  is  more  or  less 
that  of  all  Richter's  serious  works,  is,  that  he  lends  to  the 
character  the  peculiarities  of  his  own  childhood.  Hence, 
for  the  first  time  his  father  and  himself,  and  all  the  idyls 
of  village  life,  ai)pear  in  the  borrowed  liglit  of  poetry. 
As  they  pass  before  him  he  gives  them  individuality,  and 
the  coloring  of  reality.  It  seemed  only  necessary  for  him 
to  touch  his  native  ground,  the  home  of  his  childhood, 
and  from  them  he  immediately  received  inspiration. 

The  contest,  as  I  have  said  above,  of  the  serious  and 
humorous  never  ceased.  Humor  was  often,  even  in  his 
most  serious  works,  the  quality  that  ruled  his  nature  ;  the 
product  not  now  of  contempt,  but  of  love  ;  springing  from 
the  heart  as  much  as  from  the  imagination,  and  pouring 
the  balm  of  a  sympathizing  spirit  over  the  wounds  of 
humanity.  If  I  mistake  not,  Richter's  humor  is  the  qual- 
ity that  has  made  him  so  beloved  by  the  Germans.     Its 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  495 

origin  is  a  true  sensibility  to  the  discrepancies  and  con- 
trasts of  life,  and  a  quick  perception  of  the  alleviations, 
which  his  rare  gifts  enabled  him  to  present  with  a  simple 
and  touching  pathos. 

In  his  preface  to  Quintus  Fixlein,  which  is  an  enlarged 
repetition  of  Wuz,  he  tells  us  the  purpose  for  which  he 
writes.  "  That  I  may  show  to  the  whole  earth  that  we 
ought  to  value  little  joys  more  than  great  ones;  the  night- 
gown more  than  the  dress-coat ;  that  Plutus's  heaps  are 
worth  less  than  his  handfuls ;  the  plum  than  the  penny 
for  a  rainy  day  ;  and  that  not  great,  but  little  good-haps 
can  make  us  happy.  Can  I  accomplish  this,  I  shall, 
through  means  of  my  book  bring  up  for  posterity  a  race 
of  men  finding  refresliment  in  all  things  ;  in  the  warmth 
of  their  rooms,  and  of  their  niglit-caps ;  in  their  pillows, 
in  mere  apostles'  days,  in  the  evening  moral  tales  of  their 
wives,  (fee.  You  perceive  my  drift  is,  that  man  may  be- 
come a  little  tailor-bird,  which,  not  amidst  the  crashing 
boughs  of  the  storm-tost,  roaring,  immeasurable  tree  of 
life,  but  upon  one  of  its  leaves  sews  itself  a  nest  together, 
and  there  lies  snug."  * 

The  whole  of  this  preface,  with  its  quaint  illustrations, 
is  an  exquisite  essay  upon  contentment,  and  worth  all  the 
philosophy  and  all  the  sermons  that  ever  were  written  on 
the  art  of  being  happy. 

In  the  succession  of  works  that  followed  this,  Jean 
Paul's  power  of  conception  and  ci'eation  rose  higher  and 
higher,  till  he  reached  the  ideal  of  his  Titan.  But  the 
theme  is  always  the  same,  the  contrast  of  the  ideal  with 
the  real,  the  Godlike  spark  striving  with  the  mists  of 
eartli.     This  leads  us  to  the  third  series  of  his  w^orks,  — 

*  I  avail  myself  gratefully  of  Carlyle's  translation,  as  I  have  not  the 
original  at  hand. 


496  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

the  Comic,  -where  the  striving  after  the  ideal  becomes  an 
ilhision,  and  the  source  of  joy  and  contentment  rendered 
infinitely  humorous  by  the  limited  nature  of  his  heroes, 
and  the  contradiction  between  the  striving  of  the  heart 
and  the  striving  of  the  head ;  the  contrast  of  the  grand 
idea  with  the  limited  and  paltry  power  of  execution ;  as 
in  Nicholas  Margraf,  who  believes  himself  born  to  be  a 
king,  and  conducts  himself  right  royally  under  the  mean- 
est and  most  pitiful  environment.  All  such  characters 
protect  themselves  by  their  ideal,  from  the  frosts  and 
miseries  of  the  external  world.  A  true  enthusiasm,  as 
Richter  says,  is  "  like  the  bird  of  paradise,  that  slumbers 
flying,  and  on  liis  outspread  pinions  oversleeps,  imcon- 
sdiously,  the  earthquakes  and  conflagrations  of  life,  in 
its  long  fair  dream  of  its  ideal  mother-land  "  ;  an  illusion 
becomes  comic  and  ridiculous  only,  wlien  it  is  like  that 
foolish  bird,  who  thinks  she  protects  her  body  by  hiding 
her  head. 

I  have  said  too  much,  perhaps,  upon  this  subject,  but  it 
seems  to  me  to  solve  what  has  been  called  the  enigma  of 
Jean  Paul's  works. 

When  we  come  to  the  execution  of  his  works,  to  the 
outward  form,  there  indeed  he  falls  far  shoi-t  of  his  own 
ideal.  He  pronounced  one  of  his  works  a  born  ruin. 
All,  more  or  less  partake  of  that  character.  His  con- 
ceptions were  glorious,  perfect ;  the  edifice  stood  whole 
and  secure  in  his  mind,  but  when  he  comes  to  the  execu- 
tion upon  paper,  it  seems  to  fall  together  in  a  confused 
mass  ;  the  fair-proportioned  columns,  that  should  support 
the  edifice,  stand  alone,  or  are  prostrate  ;  ignoble  parts  of 
the  structure  are  thrust  out  in  close  contact  with  the 
beautiful,  and  mar  the  just  proportions  of  tlie  whole  ;  the 
divine  pictures  and  cabinets  of  gems,  that  should  adorn 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  497 

with  chaste  beauty,  are  scattered  in  reckless  profusioa 
over  every  part ;  meanness  and  grace,  beauty  and  de- 
formity, are  everywhere  mingled  together. 

That  Richter  was  deficient  in  taste  has  been  allowed 
by  his  warmest  admirers.  He  had  an  eye  open  to  beauty, 
but  he  had  also  no  disgust  at  defoi-mity.  He  seems, 
indeed,  to  have  imagined  beauty  in  all  deformity  except 
that  of  vice.  This  want  of  taste  may  be  accounted  for 
by  the  homely  poverty  and  meanness  of  his  early  life. 
He  had  a  deep  and  pervading  feeling  of  moi'al  beauty,  he 
also  discerned  beauty  in  the  humblest  forms,  where  other 
eyes  had  never  looked  for  it.  But  as  he  was  ignorant  of 
the  conventionalisms  and  elegances  of  polished  life,  he 
did  not  see  meanness  and  deformity  wliere  a  fashion- 
educated  eye  would  have  found  both.  Every  form  of 
human  life,  the  humblest  domestic  occupation,  possessed 
beauty  for  him ;  and,  in  his  view,  the  hunting  of  rats  was 
as  heroic  as  the  hunting  of  hares.  In  this  respect  he  re- 
minds us  of  Shakespeare,  —  how  soon,  after  an  acquaint- 
ance with  Shakespeare,  ai-e  what  the  French  call  liis  bar- 
barisms forgotten. 

The  result  of  the  perusal  of  one  of  Jean  Paul's  works 
is  like  going  through  a  gallery  of  pictures  where  celestial 
Madonnas,  St.  Johns,  and  St.  Cecilias  hang  side  by  side 
with  Dutch  Inns,  Sancho  Panzas,  and  drinking  boors ; 
but  we  go  back  again  and  again  to  study  the  divine  pic- 
tures, and  feel  their  elevating  influence,  while  the  others, 
although  admired  for  their  truth  and  nature,  are  forgotten 
as  works  of  art. 

Another  peculiarity  of  Richter,  which  has  been  ridi- 
culed by  superficial  readers,  is  what  has  been  called  his 
sentimentalism.  It  is  not  a  weeping  or  sickly  sentiment 
that  characterizes  Jean  Paul,  but  a  tenderness  of  heart, 


498  LIFE    OF  JEAN    PAUL. 

a  poetry  of  his  own,  that  leads  him  to  cheiish  the  flower 
planted  by  the  hand  of  love ;  to  remember  birthdays  and 
anniversaries;  and  to  institute  many  festivals  of  the  heart. 
It  is  a  religion  of  the  affections  that  belongs  to  the  Ger- 
mans more  than  to  any  otlier  nation,  that  makes  them 
capable  of  superstitious  illusions,  but  that  it  would  "be  un- 
just to  call  sentimentalism.  Humor  also  is  united  with 
this  sentiment,  as  in  no  other  author,  except  Sterne, 
whom  Richter  is  said  to  resemble.  In  this  respect  he 
also  resembles  Burns,  uniting  with  a  deeper  tenderness 
an  equally  jjlayful  and  heartfelt  pathos.  Humor  is  fatAl 
to  false  sentiment,  extinguishing  it  as  fire  devours  water, 
but  it  lieightens  the  tenderness  of  Richter,  as  a  smile  on 
the  lip  enhances  the  chai'm  of  a  tear  in  the  eye. 

Ah !  I  feel  how  impossible,  and  how  presumptuous  it 
may  be,  to  endeavor  through  translations  to  do  adequate 
justice  to  an  author  whose  writings  awoke  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  whole  German  nation  ;  excited  the  admiration  of 
every  rank,  and  were  equally  felt  by  such  opposite  char- 
acters as  Lavater  and  Herder,  Jacobi  and  the  ancient 
Gleim.  The  circumstances  of  our  own  country  are,  it  is 
true,  widely  different.  Richter  appeared  in  Germany  in 
tlie  midst  of  that  mighty  shaking  that  was  given  by  the 
French  Revolution  to  all  established  institutions,  to  all 
artificial  distinctions  among  men.  As  one  of  his  critics 
writes,  "  The  whole  nation,  like  Jean  Paul  himself,  was 
laboi-ing  with  the  great  idea  of  spiritual  and  social  eman- 
cipation. Napoleon's  giant  hand  had  arrested  the  advan- 
cing steps  of  freedom,  and  the  nation  gave  itself  back  to  a 
secretly  growing  scepticism  of  feeling,  before  wliich  the  car- 
nest  emotions  were  ashamed  to  appear.  Under  this  secret 
pressure  of  the  heart,  Jean  Paul's  works  were  like  the 
words  of  a  prophet  who  appeared  before  them  with  the 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  499 

freshest  and  purest  emotions  of  nature ;  he  had  the  cour- 
age to  bare  for  them  his  breast  and  his  beating  heart, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  held  the  scourge  over  the  piti- 
ful restraints  and  vulgar  ridicule  before  which  the  tearful 
eye  concealed  its  love,  its  longing,  its  enthusiasm,  and  its 
higher  faith."  Eichter's  heart  beat  in  unison  with  the 
heart  of  his  fellow-men.  While  Goethe  withdrew  in 
philosophic  retirement  to  study  osteology,  or  mark  the 
beautiful  shades  upon  the  lip  of  a  shell,  or  the  corolla  of 
a  plant,  Richter  threw  himself  with  all  his  powers,  heart 
and  soul,  into  that  uprising  of  the  German  people  for 
freedom,  which  has  been  called  a  living  Poem.  With  us 
there  is,  indeed,  no  restraint  in  thinking,  writing,  or  speak- 
ing; but  is  there  not  a  secret  infidelity  as  to  the  existence 
of  disinterested  and  self-sacrificing  love  ;  an  extremely 
practical  course  of  thought,  that  leads  us  to  place  all 
spii'itual  relations  among  the  illusions  of  life  ?  Is  there 
not  a  cold  egotism  that  disposes  us  to  undervalue  every- 
thing whose  material  existence  cannot  be  proved  by  its 
solid  advantages  ?  All  that  deviates  from  the  straightfor- 
ward I'ailroad  path  of  life,  is  with  us  called  transcenden- 
taUsm.  Even  Richter  has  been  said,  in  this  country,  to 
belong  to  the  Bedlamite  school.  It  would  be  nearly  as 
just  to  call  Paradise  Lost  of  the  Bedlamite  school. 

The  charge  of  affectation  that  has  been  made  against 
Jean  Paul  is  perhaps  as  unjust,  but  is  not  so  easily  dis- 
proved. All  affectation  supposes  some  insincerity,  or  at- 
tempt to  appear  otherwise  than  strict  truth  allows.  Now 
Richter  was  the  truest  of  men  ;  he  was  so  open  and  fear- 
less in  the  assertion  of  all  his  opinions,  that  he  made 
almost  as  many  opponents  as  persons  with  whom  he  con- 
versed. But  the  charge  of  affectation  applies  only  to  the 
form   of  his  writings,  and,  as  already  mentioned,  arose 


500  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL. 

from  the  nature  of  his  first  works.  I  repeat  again,  that 
they  were  essays  and  satires,  without  dramatic  form  or 
fictitious  incident.  To  give  novelty  to  old  themes,  he 
sought  out  every  strange  and  striking  form  of  expression  ; 
exhausted  every  department  of  science,  and  all  the.f  ealms 
of  nature  for  illustrations  ;  heaped  image  upon  compari- 
son, and  comparison  upon  image  ;  distorted  and  reversed, 
and  turned  his  sentences  topsy-turvy.  He  was  like  a  jug- 
gler, who,  in  the  absence  of  all  dramatis  personee,  makes 
one  material  assume  many  different  forms,  —  to  be  now  a 
bird,  and  directly,  by  sleight  of  hand,  a  jewel,  a  flower, 
or  a  stone.  This  manner  became  habitual  to  him,  and 
later  he  could  not,  if  he  would,  have  thrown  it  off.  Otto 
was  always  urging  liim  to  translate  some  one  of  his  works 
into  plain  German,  and  publish  it  without  name  or  pref- 
ace. Richter  answered,  "  that  he  would  preserve  his  own 
manner  in  an  age  when  Schiller  found  nothing  in  Thum- 
mel,  and  Herder  nothing  in  Schleiermacher  and  Tieck, 
Schlegel  everything ;  when  Herder  called  his  (Richter's) 
style  classical,  and  Merkel  called  it  poor ;  when  Goethe 
said  the  stupid  Genovefa  was  good ;  and  all  were  pitifully 
in  op{)osition  to  tliemselves  and  to  each  other." 

It  was  a  heavy  disadvantage  for  Richter,  that  his  es- 
trangement from  Goethe  took  place  at  the  beginning  of 
his  poj)ulai-ity  ;  he  lost  the  benefit  of  that  severe,  but  can- 
did and  friendly  criticism,  that  to  one  so  regardless  of  all 
form  would  have  been  of  incalculable  benefit.  The  re- 
views, as  he  justly  complained,  bestowed  upon  him  only 
indiscriminate  praise  or  boundless  censure.  INIrs.  Austen, 
among  Englisli  critics,  has  been  most  impartially  just. 
She  says,  "  Jean  Paul  has  overlaid  a  world  of  genuine 
and  humane  wisdom  with  bewildering  conceits,  and  far- 
fetched, unintelligible  illustrations.     But  the  reader  who 


LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL.  501 

will  look  below  the  surface  will  find  that  his  knowledge 
of  actual  human  nature  was  profound,  and  his  views  as  to 
what  human  nature  should  be  benevolent,  elevated,  and 
consistent  with  the  soundest  I'eason  and  humanity." 

Mr.  Carlyle,  to  whom  we  have  been  so  eminently  in- 
debted for  his  beautiful  and  eloquent  essays  upon  Rich- 
ter,  has  been  singularly  happy  in  presenting  him  to  the 
English  reader.  But  I  must  be  permitted  to  say,  that  his 
genuine  admiration  has  led  him  to  exaggerate  the  pecu- 
liarities of  Jean  Paul.  He  has  taken  the  color  of  that 
upon  which  he  fed,  and  now  gives  it  back  in  intenser 
shades.  His  later  translations  from  Jean  Paul  have  been 
deeply  overlaid  with  Carlyleisms. 

What  may  be  called  the  machinery  of  Jean  Paul's  ro- 
mances is  as  strange  as  their  form.  Like  Scott,  he  pref- 
aces his  works  with  a  humorous  account  of  the  motive 
and  the  manner  of  their  composition,  and  however  serious 
the  subject  it  is  usually  set  in  a  comic  frame.  His  char- 
acters are  few  in  number,  but  with  little  change  they  are 
always  the  same  company,  and  appear  again  and  again  in 
tragedy,  comedy,  or  farce.  Sometimes,  as  he  says  him- 
self, they  play  their  parts  upon  the  "  cold  Mont  Blanc 
of  aristocratic  life  "  ;  then,  in  a  sheltered  cottage  in  the 
valley,  or  in  a  shepherd's  hut ;  his  favorite  theatre  is  the 
quiet  parsonage  of  a  country  minister,  where  he  takes  a 
part  himself,  and  holds  the  wire  that  involves  or  extri- 
cates the  mysterious  motions  of  his  puppets.  One  of  his 
favorite  modes  of  addressing  the  public  is  in  a  letter  to 
one  of  his  own  fictitious  characters,  in  which  he  indulges 
himself  in  all  sorts  of  witty  allusions  and  humorous 
remarks. 

His  various  works  are  like  episodes,  where  we  meet  in 
other,  and  far  different  circumstances,  our  old  acquaint- 


502  LIFE    OF    JEAN    PAUL 

ances,  who  belong  to  one  great  Avhole,  like  characters  in 
real  life,  who  meet  and  part  and  meet  again.  Those  that 
Ave  have  met  in  their  early  years  in  one  romance  Ave  see 
again  in  a  happy  old  age,  or  we  listen  to  the  eulogy  tliat 
is  pronounced  by  a  successor  upon  their  grave. 

The  reader  may  be  surprised  that  I  liave  uniformly 
called  Jean  Paul  a  poet ;  but  if  the  definition  of  poet  be, 
"  one  that  gives  expression  to  Avhat  others  feel "  ;  one, 
who  interprets  that  in  the  heart  Avhich,  like  the  iuai'ticu- 
late  lisping  of  the  child,  cannot  be  made  known  for  want 
of  adequate  expression,  then  he  as  truly  deserves  the 
name  of  poet  as  if  every  line  he  has  Avritten  were  meas- 
ured, and  rhymed  with  another  line.  His  great  heart 
beat  Avith  the  united  pulses  of  all  human  hearts.  He  is 
the  truest  interpreter  of  joy  and  sorrow,  love  and  grief ; 
and  all  those  hidden  feelings  that  are  revealed  by  the 
poet,  as  the  sunbeam  penetrates  the  mine  and  shows  its 
hidden  treasures. 

Finally,  no  poet's  inward  life  is  more  distinctly  made 
knoAvn  t)iau  Jean  Paul's,  in  his  Avorks,  in  his  elevated 
characters;  in  his  Gustavus,  his  Albano,  his  Dahore. 
Like  a  solitary  sage  he  looked  out  from  his  hermitage 
upon  the  ever-swelling  and  rushing  AA^aves  of  the  litera- 
ture and  politics  of  that  remarkable  period  in  which  he 
lived.  Unmoved  by  its  passions,  still  and  calm,  he  was 
like  a  holy  prophet  of  its  issue.  GloAving  for  freedom, 
truth,  and  the  happiness  of  man,  yet  never  failing  in  the 
clearness  of  his  understanding  or  the  firmness  of  his  Avill. 
Full  of  scorn  and  hatred  of  all  servility  and  all  tyranny, 
yet  ever  free  from  the  folly  and  madness  of  enthusiasm. 
AVith  imj)aitiality  and  justice  he  weighed  the  ad\ antages 
of  this  Avorld  in  the  same  scales  in  which  he  had  placed 
the  hopes  of  another. 


APPENDIX 


I 


INCE  the  first  edition  of  this  work  I  have  learnt  some 
interesting  partlcuhirs  of  this  lady,  who  entered  with 
singular  power  into  the  life  and  poetry  of  Jean  Paul. 
Born  in  1761,  after  losing  both  her  parents  she  lived 
a  youth  of  strangely  varied  experience.  By  nature 
genial,  susceptible,  enthusiastic,  and  with  unusual  personal  attrac- 
tions, she  grew  up  without  a  regular  education  ;  but  there  was  col- 
lected in  the  head  of  this  young  maiden  an  indiscriminate  harvest  of 
miscellaneous  reading.  The  Bible,  the  Koran,  Voltaire,  Rousseau, 
Shakespeare,  Klopstock,  were  only  shining  points  in  the  limitless 
range  of  her  reading.  She  was  of  all  the  women  who  followed  in 
the  festival  procession  of  the  great  German  poets  the  richest  in  in- 
tellectual gifts.  Nature  had  intended  her  for  a  poet,  but  the  deeply 
painful  result  of  family  necessities  compelled  her  to  a  marriage  with 
a  man  so  little  loved  that  she  was  borne  fainting  from  the  altar. 
This  marriage  was  to  secure  her  fortune  to  the  family  interest  of 
her  husband,  and,  as  she  said  afterwards,  it  was  no  more  doubtful 
of  happiness  than  other  unions  where  mutual  inclination  failed,  and, 
on  her  side,  disinterested. 

Schiller  met  her  with  her  husband.  Major  von  Kalb,  when  she 
was  twenty-three  years  old,  and  for  six  years,  till  his  marriage  in 
1790,  she  held  a  deep  and  powerful,  an  irresistible  influence  over 
the  mind  and  heart  of  the  poet. 

Her  fascination  must-have  been  greater  than  when,  at  thirty-five, 
she  charmed  the  great  humorist,  Jean  Paul.  When  he  met  her  in 
Weimar,  twelve  years  after  her  marriage,  he  says  :  "  She  is  a  woman 


504  APPENDIX. 

like  none,  with  an  all-powerful  heart  and  an  indomitable  will,  —  a 
Titanade." 

The  close  of  her  intimate  friendship  with  Schiller,  at  the  time  of 
his  marriage  with  Charlotte  Lengfield,  discloses  the  utter  misery 
of  such  connections,  even  if  they  do  not  pass  tlie  limits  of  friendship. 

Jean  Paul  continued  always  to  regard  her  with  fender  sympathy 
and  admiration.  After  her  friendship  with  him  ceased,  on  account 
of  her  son  she  would  not  consent  to  a  divorce  from  her  husband. 
Her  estate  was  lost  to  her,  and  before  her  death  she  became  totally 
blind.  One  of  the  Prussian  princesses  gave  her  an  apartment  in  the 
Royal  Castle  in  Berlin,  where  she  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-two 
years. 

After  receiving  the  book  in  which  the  preftice  was  supposed  to 
have  reference  to  her,  she  wrote  as  follows,  the  last  letter  of  hers 
that  has  been  given  in  the  Life  of  Jean  Paul. 

"June  19, 1799. 

"  This  is  the  day  I  expected  a  letter  from  you,  and  received  none, 
but  I  will  write  what  has  occurred  to  me  respecting  your  book. 

"  The  preface  has  beautiful  thoughts.  It  may  prepare  for  a  better 
time  in  (juiet  dispositions  ;  but  how  liard  it  is,  when  men  will  have 
for  themselves  the  evangel  of  selfishness,  but  for  woman  tlie  severity 
of  the  law.  There  are  also  views  of  things  that  will  have  no  effect. 
No  caricature  can  improve  or  make  moral,  that  is,  calm  and  happy 
men. 

"  The  Wandering  Aurora  has  pleased  me  much  ;  so  has  the  Essay 
upon  Dreams;  and,  indeed,  all  the  Philoso])liical  letters.  I  have 
written  to  Herder  about  them. 

"  The  Testament  for  Dau<]hlers  is  too  light  a  work  for  you.  I 
must  write  a  testament  for  daughters,  if  I  am  ever  so  stupid  as  to 
know  my  own  errors.  The  testaments  of  men,  for  daughters,  sound 
about  thus  :  '  You  have  no  rights  in  life.  There  will  be  no  love 
for  you;  you  will  be  despised  or  appropriated.  You  must  love, 
and  make  one  only  happy  ;  but  you  dare  neither  have  understand- 
ing nor  will  of  your  own.  You  must  not  manifest  cither  wishes, 
joy,  or  sympathy ;  and  the  desires  that  you  possess  in  common 
with  us,  in  recollection  will  appear  like  guilt.' 

"  I  know  nothing  weaker  or  more  ridiculous  in  a  man  than  to 
make  known  such  a  knowledge  of  the  female  heart ;  certainly  not 
for  jiurjioscs  of  injury,  but  for  information. 


APPENDIX.  505 

"  The  satire  upon  the  authorship  of  women  I  find  not  entirely 
true.  I  may  have  nothing  to  do  with  either ;  and  even  my  daughter 
shall  not  trouble  herself;  pride  would  forbid  it.  But  what  you  do 
from  self-interest  does  not  make  you  get  rid  of  our  souls.  Like  the 
Devil,  they  will  remain  in  eternity.  The  happy,  loving  woman  will 
be  no  author  ;  and  to  the  unhappy  no  one  will  have  recourse. 
Wherefore  will  you  not  that  women  sustain  the  same  troubles  and 
live  by  tiie  same  illusions  as  yourselves.  Ambition  has  never  the 
same  power  over  a  female  heart  as  over  a  man's.  She  can  never 
forget  that  she  has  a  heart,  and  can  love!  No  illusion,  no  enthu- 
siasm, increases  this  consciousness  of  the  highest,  and  the  love,  of 
which  men  sing,  is  with  women  an  eternal  truth. 

"  Jean  Paul  must  take  care  that  with  his  garden-shears  he  does 
not  prune  the  delicate  plant  too  much.  He  cannot  check  true 
genius ;  but  he  may  increase  its  burdens,  and  accelerate  many  fol- 
lies.    Shall  not  women  be  what  they  may  and  can  be  ? 

"  It  must  be  that  they  have  children,  and  cook  and  stitch ;  but  the 
graces  may  unite  with  the  understanding  for  all  these  purposes." 

Madam  von  Kalb,  although  Richter  calls  her  a  disciple  of  Herder, 
was  deeply  imbued  with  the  aesthetic  doctrines  taught  by  Goethe  and 
the  Schlegel  school,  .^^isthetics,  as  far  as  I  understand  it,  is  the  pur- 
suit and  worship  of  the  beautiful  as  the  perfection  of  human  life. 
All  morality  takes  a  subordinate  station ;  but  religion  is  one  with 
the  perfect,  or  beautiful,  and  by  sesthetics,  or  the  love  of  beauty,  the 
mind  is  able  to  soar  to  religion  and  immortality.  Thus  a  finely- 
organized  soul  can  exist  only  in  a  state  of  perfection  or  beauty. 
One  may  easily  understand  the  practical  consequences  of  this  doc- 
trine ;  for  as  morals  were  subordinate  to  the  love  of  the  beautiful, 
and  only  finely-constituted  souls  could  have  any  affinity  with  each 
other,  the  relations  of  social  life,  if  not  happily  formed,  became  sub- 
ordinate, and  were  violated ;  or  became  the  occasion  of  profound  and 
terrible  misery,  as  in  Goethe's  Elective  Affinities.  Few,  like  Ottilia, 
would  choose  the  better  part,  and  die,  "  because  breathed  on  by  un- 
hallowed passion."  The  evil  that  Richter  most  lamented  in  the 
aesthetic  philosophy  was,  that  it  conspired  with  passion  to  deceive ; 
and  men  imagined  that,  as  all  purity  was  within,  outward  relations 
might  be  violated  without  sullying  the  purity  of  eine  shiine  seele. 

We  see  indications  of  this  philosophy  in  all  Madam  von  Kalb's 
letters  ;  and  the  letter  that  occasioned  the  rupture  with  Jean  Paul 
22 


5o6  APPENDIX. 

avowed  the  ncsthctic  doctrine  "  that  religion  upon  this  earth  consists 
in  the  perfection  of  all  the  powers,  physical  as  well  as  spiritual,  and 
that  these  powers  should  suffer  no  restraint,  but  the  weak  yield  to 
the  strong." 

Jean  Paul's  abhorrence  of  these  doctrines,  and  of  the  immorality 
and  misery  in  domestic  life  that  might  be  ascribed  to  them,  is  ex- 
pressed in  every  one  of  his  works,  but  particularly  in  a  little  tale, 
"  The  Secret  Lamentation  of  the  Men  of  our  Times,"  in  which  two 
young  persons  become  attached  to  each  other,  with  circumstances 
of  singular  interest.  Their  misery  and  shame,  when  they  discover 
that  tliey  are  brother  and  sister  ;  the  remorseful  agony  of  the  father, 
and  the  contempt  that  takes  the  place  of  love  in  the  breast  of  the 
injured  wife,  make  the  interest  and  instruction  of  the  story ;  but, 
like  all  narratives  written  for  an  express  moral,  it  fails  in  that 
freedom  and  fulness  of  thought  that  distinguish  his  spontaneous 
works. 

Speaking  of  domestic  morality  in  Weimar,  Paul  says:  "This  is 
certain,  a  spiritual  and  more  important  revolution  than  the  politic.il, 
and  far  more  murderous,  is  now  beating  in  the  heart  of  the  world ; 
therefore  is  the  vocation  of  an  author,  whose  heart  beats  with  wholly 
ditferent  principles  and  aims,  so  necessary,  and  demands  so  much 
heed  and  circumspection." 

Madam  von  Kalb's  views  of  love  were  entirely  of  the  aesthetic 
school ;  but  Kichter  had  too  much  delicacy  in  his  to  wish  to  marry 
a  divorcee,  and  after  his  decided  opposition  to  the  divorce,  on  liis 
second  residence  in  Weimar,  there  was  no  further  question  about  it. 
Madam  von  Kalb  extended  her  friendship  to  Paul's  wife  ;  and, 
although  she  afterwards  demanded  the  return  of  her  letters,  their 
fricndsliip  did  not  wholly  cease. 


APPENDIX.  507 


II. 


WIELAND  was  born  in  1733  (just  thirty  years  before  Eichter), 
in  Biberac,  in  Suabia.  His  father  was  a  Lutheran  minister. 
In  his  fourteenth  year  lie  was  sent  to  a  cloister,  where  he  penetrated 
deeply  into  the  spirit  of  the  ancients,  and  became  acquainted  with 
En^^lish  literature.  Everything  conspired  to  make  Wieland  a  poet, 
—  his  humble  natal  roof,  hallowed  by  the  presence,  of  his  father,  a 
learned,  patriarchal  pastor ;  the  ancient  cloisters  of  Bergen,  the  still 
monastic  Tiibingen,  his  devotion  to  Sophia  La  Roche  as  to  the  idea 
of  perfection,  and  the  hope,  ever  retreating  before  him,  but  always 
kept  in  view,  of  one  day  consecrating  himself  to  her,  and  to  the 
highest  virtue,  as  to  one  and  the  same  thing ;  his  long  residence  in 
Switzerland,  where  he  elaborated  his  works,  and  gave  them  the  ele- 
gance, the  clearness,  and  the  natural  grace  which  cannot  be  attained 
by  mere  drudgery.  These  glad,  bright  regions  of  the  golden  time ; 
this  paradise  of  innocence,  when  he  regarded  what  he  imagined  and 
dreamed  as  absolute  reality,  he  dwelt  on  long ;  but  disappointments 
came ;  he  could  not  succeed  in  combining  these  high  interests  with 
the  necessities  of  every -day  existence  ;  the  conflict  with  the  outward 
world  began,  and,  after  long  struggles,  he  accepted  the  actual  as 
the  necessary,  and  henceforth  made  war  upon  his  former  romantic 
dreams ;  his  idea  of  Platonic  love,  and  upon  all  that  cannot  be 
shown  to  exist  in  reality.  Henceforth  he  permitted  no  single  im- 
pression to  have  dominion  over  him. 

Wieland's  change  of  views  may  be  in  part  attributed  to  his  resi- 
dence with  Count  Stadion.  The  Count's  library,  rich  in  modern 
French  and  English  literature,  helped  him  to  descend  from  that 
ideal  region  in  which  he  loved  to  dwell  with  Sophia  La  Roche,  and, 
after  he  had  been  wounded  by  what  is  called  experience,  he  threw 
himself  entirely  on  the  side  of  the  real.         • 

In  his  fortieth  year  he  was  invited  by  the  Duchess  Amelia  to 
superintend  the  education  of  her  sons ;  and  from  this  time  he  was 
assured  of  a  life  of  leisure  and  independence,  which  was  continued 
to  him  after  he  had  done  with  his  pupils  by  a  pension  from  the 
Duke. 

Wieland,  in  possession  of  complete  literary  leisure,  longed  for  a 
more  poetical  retirement,  and  bought  an  estate  in  Osmanstadt,  not 


5o8  APPENDIX. 

far  from  Weimar.  Man,  born  for  society,  often  cheats  himself  with 
the  sweet  dream  that  he  can  live  better,  more  joyfully  in  seclusion. 
In  the  excitable  days  of  youth  we  imagine  that  solitude  is  the  great 
refuge  against  ourselves,  the  grand  remedy  for  the  wounds  we  re- 
ceive in  the  contests  of  life.  It  is  a  grave  error.  The  experience 
of  life  teaches  us  that  neither  the  enjoyments  of  literature  "nor  art 
can  fill  the  abyss  of  the  soul.  Wieland's  happiness  was  interrupted 
by  the  death  of  Sophia  La  Roche,  the  daughter  of  his  first  love,  and 
the  excellent,  careful  partner  of  his  life,  whom  Jean  Paul  thought 
he  could  never  survive.  He  did  survive  for  the  space  of  twelve 
years,  but  the  solitude  of  Osmanstadt  became  too  oppressive  to  his 
bereaved  heart,  and  his  friend  the  Duchess  Amelia  recalled  him  to 
herself  He  was  henceforth  a  member  of  her  court  and  house,  and 
when,  with  others,  he  had  to  bear  the  afflictive  event  of  her  death, 
court  and  city  vied  with  each  other  to  console  him.* 

Wieland's  heart's  history,  of  which  Jean  Paul  says  he  imparted 
the  particulars  to  him,  a  willing  listener,  was  in  part  his  early  and 
innocent  connection  with  Sophia  La  Roche,  the  grandmother,  that 
Bettine  mentions  so  often  in  her  letters  to  Gunderode.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  an  eminent  physician.  Her  father  possessed  an 
extensive  and  excellent  library,  and  when  she  was  only  two  years 
old  he  taught  her  to  read  by  the  titles  of  the  books,  as  they  rested 
on  the  shelves.  Her  parents  gave  her  early  religious  instruction, 
and  cultivated  a  love  for  all  that  is  beautiful  in  nature  or  art.  In 
her  sixteenth  year  she  was  strikinglj'  beautiful,  and  was  sought  in 
marriage  by  a  learned  Italian,  who  instructed  her  in  the  language 
and  literature  of  his  native  land.  At  this  time  Sophia  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  lose  her  excellent  mother,  and  her  father  became  desirous 
to  have  her  marriage  completed  ;  differences  arose,  however,  in  con- 
sequence of  religious  scruples,  —  Bianconi  insisting  that  all  the  chil- 
dren of  the  marriage,  daughters  as  well  as  sons,  should  be  educated 
in  the  Catliolic  form  ot  Christianity.  The  f^ither  of  Sophia  imme- 
diately animlled  the  engagement,  and  poor  Sophia  was  obliged,  in 
the  presence  of  her  grandmother,  father,  and  aunts,  to  destroy  all 
the  letters  and  souvenirs  of  her  happy  love;  the  picture  of  Bianconi 
was  cut  into  shreds,  and  a  ring,  set  with  brilliants,  broken  into 
pieces,  and  all  committed  to  the  flames. 

Her  mother,  who  had  been  her  tendcrest  and  most  sympathizing 

*  From  the  notes  to  Mrs.  Austen's  Characteristics  of  Ooethe. 


APPENDIX.  509 

friend,  died  too  early  for  the  happiness  of  her  daughter ;  for  she 
would,  no  doubt,  have  found  a  way  to  smooth  all  difficulties  ;  but 
Sophia,  who  would  shed  no  tear  in  the  presence  of  her  stern  rela- 
tives, retired  to  weep  in  the  solitude  of  her  chamber,  where  she 
struggled  alone  with  a  new  temptation.  She  received  a  note  from 
Bianconi,  urging  her  to  a  secret  marriage,  and  a  flight  to  his  own 
country',  to  the  bosom  of  a  noble  and  loving  fimily.  He  fortified 
his  request  by  more  than  thirty  letters  from  her  father,  where  he 
had  unconditionally  promised  him  his  daughter.  Sophia  would 
not  leave  her  father  without  his  blessing  ;  but  in  the  depths  of  her 
soul,  and  in  unconsoled  solitude,  she  vowed  constancy  to  the  mau 
who  had  done  so  much  for  her  intellectual  nature.  With  this  view 
she  desired  to  enter  upon  a  novitiate,  in  order  to  pass  her  life  in  a 
cloister.  Her  father  would  not  permit  this  sacrifice ;  but  he  allowed 
her  the  uncontrolled  use  of  her  time,  and  to  live  in  retirement,  where 
she  devoted  herself  to  study  and  to  the  sciences  and  accomplish- 
ments that  Bianconi  preferred. 

Sophia's  disinclination  to  society  obtained  for  her  permission  from 
her  father  to  go  with  her  sisters  to  live  with  her  maternal  grand- 
father, who  was  brother  to  the  mother  of  Wieland.  The  death  of 
the  grandfather  occurring  soon  after,  Sophia  entered  the  family 
of  Wieland's  father,  where  she  lived,  as  her  biographer  expresses 
it,  by  her  own  economy. 

Young  Wieland  came  in  the  vacation  to  his  father's  house,  and 
the  beautiful  maiden  of  nineteen  inspired  him  with  the  most  enthu- 
siastic passion.  He  was  two  years  younger  ;  but  Sophia  could  then 
appreciate  his  noble  character;  a  close  friendship  was  formed  be- 
tween them,  and  even  in  old  age  they  thanked  God  for  having  led 
them  both  under  the  same  roof.  Often  they  kneeled  together,  and 
devoted  themselves  in  prayer  to  the  eternal  pui-suit  and  worship  of 
truth  and  duty. 

Wieland  says  :  "  It  was  an  ideal,  but  a  true  enchantment  in  which 
I  lived  ;  and  the  Sophia  that  I  loved  so  enthusiastically  was  the  idea 
of  perfection  embodied  in  her  form.  Nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  if  destiny  had  not  brought  us  together  I  should  never  have  been 
a  poet."  They  vowed  to  love  each  other  as  long  as  either  lived, 
and  virtue  eternally. 

Sophia  returned  to  her  father's  house,  and  Wieland  to  Tubingen  ; 
but  longing  to  see  Sophia  impelled  him,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  to 
return.    He  then  went  to  Switzerland,  where  he  lived  eight  years, 


510  APPENDIX. 

but  always  without  the  prospect  of  any  provision  tliat  would  allow 
them  to  marry.  At  the  end  of  this  time  Sophia  gave  her  hand  to 
Herr  La  Kochc.  It  does  not  appear  whether  her  father's  authority 
was  ai^ain,  as  in  the  first  instance,  exerted,  or  whether  considerations 
of  prudence  iiiHuenced  herself,  but  the  marriage  was  a  very  happy 
one.  She  informed  Wieland  of  it  by  a  letter,  and  he  seems  to  have 
been  convinced  that  her  upright  and  true  heart  could  not  liave  done 
otherwise  ;  and  he  prayed  for  the  continuance  of  her  friendship. 
"  A  friendship  that  had  been  so  pure  and  disinterested  need  not  be 
broken  by  another  union,  and  in  the  land  of  the  blessed,  if  never  in 
this  life,  we  shall  meet  each  other  again." 

Many  years  after  Sophia's  marriage  Wieland  visited  her.  As  she 
sat  at  the  window,  there  was  a  knock  at  the  door  ;  a  presentiment 
that  it  was  her  friend  ran  through  her  frame,  and  she  called  out  to 
him  to  enter.  At  the  well-known  sound  of  her  voice  Wieland  re- 
mained transfixed,  when  she  opened  the  door,  and  met  him  with 
the  heartiest  welcome.  He  stood  speechless.  Seeing  her  eldest 
son,  a  beautiful  youth,  he  called  him  to  him,  and  bowing  his  head 
over  that  of  the  boy,  shed  silent  tears.  Sophia's  husband  entered 
the  room,  when,  taking  the  hands  of  Wieland  and  his  wife  in  his, 
he  pressed  them  together.  The  noble  La  Roche  cemented  the  bond 
of  their  friendship,  which  endured  yet  many  years. 

Sophia  could  not  be  otherwise  than  happy  with  a  man  so  gifted 
witli  every  noble  quality  as  the  one  with  whom  Providence  had 
united  her,  although  she  married  against  the  voice  of  her  heart. 
She  had  hitherto  lived  in  retirement,  or  in  learned  circles ;  she  was 
now  introduced  by  her  husband  into  the  exclusive  society  of  the 
German  nobility  ;  and  her  knowledge  of  the  world,  gained  by  read- 
ing, was  corrected  by  experience.  Her  truly  enlarged  mind  rose 
above  the  conventionalism  and  artificial  distinctions  of  rank,  and 
enabled  her  to  see  and  acknowledge  worth  and  talent  wherever  it 
existed. 

After  sixteen  years'  service  at  the  court  of  a  German  prince,  where 
Sophia  liad  every  opportunity  to  form  friendships  with  distinguished 
characters,  her  husband  retired  to  an  estate  in  OfiVnliach,  the  beau- 
tiful residence  from  which  so  many  of  Bettine's  letters  are  dated, 
and  the  letter  was  written  from  thence  that  is  published  in  the  body 
of  this  work.  Here  she  lived  with  her  liusband  in  the  enjoyment 
of  the  quiet  of  domestic  life ;  in  devotion  to  her  favorite  sciences, 
surrounded  by  a  beautiful  nature ;  —  a  poet   called  her  house  a 


APPENDIX.  SII 

temple  of  Euphrosyne,  where  the  pious  sacrifice  flame  was  always 
lighted.  Goethe,  in  his  biography,  gives  an  interesting  account 
of  the  manner  of  life  at  Offenbach  and  of  Madame  La  Roche. 
Here,  after  thirty-five  years  of  happy  union,  she  lost  her  husband, 
and  soon  after  the  blooming  youth  of  twenty-four  years  old,  whom 
she  mentions  so  touchingly  in  lier  letter  to  Jean  Paul. 

In  consequence  of  the  French  war  she  lost  the  greater  part  of  her 
turtune  ;  but  her  trust  in  Providence  was  so  firm,  that  she  never  or 
a  moment  lost  her  cheerfulness.  After  thirty  years'  separation,  she 
visited  Wieland  at  Osmanstadt,  near  Weimar,  where  he  was  living 
at  the  time  of  Jean  Paul's  second  visit  at  Weimar.  Wieland  had 
taken  the  daughter  of  Sophia  La  Roche  (Sophia  Brentano)  into 
that  intimate  friendship  he  had  ever  preserved  with  the  mother; 
and  after  the  death  of  both  he  said  :  "  What  I  have  once  tenderly 
loved  never  dies  for  me.  I  help  myself  with  illusions.  They  are 
dead  only  to  my  outward  sense,  and  that  is  certainly  painful." 

The  life  of  Sophia  La  Roche  was  a  high  ideality,  and  age,  instead 
of  lessening  it,  only  increased  its  pure  and  lofty  purpose.  She  was 
a  living  proof  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  for  her  life  was  so  spir- 
itual, that  it  must  have  come  immediately  from  a  higher  sphere,  and 
immediately  returned  there.  Her  deep  religious  faith  and  firm  con- 
fidence in  Providence  were  immovable  ;  hence  her  enthusiastic  love 
of  plants,  and  all  the  works  of  God,  and  her  knowledge  of  all  the 
appearances  and  phenomena  of  nature.  She  was  extensively  ac- 
quainted with  the  sciences,  well  versed  in  ancient  and  modern  his- 
tory, and  her  knowledge  of  the  philosophy  of  history,  and  observa- 
tion of  the  fate  of  nations,  as  well  as  of  eminent  men,  not  only 
established  the  benevolence  of  her  heart,  but  made  her  patient  under 
sorrows,  and  grateful  for  her  own  happy  destiny.  Everything  con- 
nected with  the  beautiful  arts  was  infinitely  dear  to  her.  In  early 
life  her  poems  and  pictures  of  touching  scenes  were  charming. 

She  held  the  purity  of  the  female  character  to  be  the  foundation 
of  all  domestic  happiness,  without  which  no  other  womanly  virtue 
could  have  its  influence  or  power.  She  studied  the  science  of  edu- 
cation, not  only  tiirough  her  tender  interest  in  her  own  children,  but 
to  make  her  little  books  for  the  benefit  of  young  people  more  useful. 
All  these  virtues  are  cx])rcssed  in  her  writings,  and  make  her  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  minor  authors  of  Germany.  They  are 
not  highly  imaginative,  but  they  recommend  virtue  and  domestic 
happiness  in  a  noble,  simple,  and  attractive  manner.    Her  stories 


512  APPENDIX. 

are  domestic  scenes  after  the  manner  of  Richardson.  She  wrote 
many  real  and  imaginary  journeys  for  young  people  ;  many  stories 
to  teach  resignation  under  affliction  ;  books  of  instruction  for  young 
wives  and  housekeepers,  and  published  many  translations  from  the 
French  and  English.  The  literature  of  Germany  is  ricli  in  books 
of  the  kind  above  mentioned,  and  those  of  the  Fraulein  La  Roche 
arc  among  the  best. 

After  her  death  Wieland  had  the  melancholy  satisfaction  of  editing 
her  whole  works,  and  writing  many  prefaces  and  notes.  —  Abridged 
from  Schindel's  Biography. 


III. 

HERDER  was  the  son  of  poor  parents.  His  father  was  the 
teacher  of  a  humble  school  for  girls,  "  but  an  earnest,  duty- 
fulfilling,  honest  man  ;  his  mother,  a  sensible,  industrious,  quiet 
UausJ'rau,  distinguished  by  her  gifts  of  mind  and  person,  and  by 
accomplishments  surpassing  others  of  her  sex  in  lowly  life."  The 
history  of  Herder's  youth  is  the  often-repeated  talc  of  the  unfolding 
of  mind  under  every  circumstance  of  oppression  and  want.  In  his 
father's  fiimily  all  the  domestic  business  and  the  hours  of  reading 
were  strictly  regulated.  If  there  was  anything  to  be  done,  the  chil- 
dren durst  not  excu,se  themselves.  It  must  be  done.  It  was  only 
by  strenuous  industry  that  his  father  could  make  his  small  income 
meet  the  expenses  of  a  large  family.  When  his  fatlier  was  satisfied 
with  him  his  countenance  expressed  it,  and  he  laid  his  hand  upon 
his  head  and  called  him  Gottes-Friedc  (God's  peace).  His  name 
was  Godfiied. 

Herder's  youth  was  so  quiet  and  reserved  that  his  teacher  thought 
him  dull,  and  advised  bis  father  to  bind  him  to  some  meciianical 
cmjiloynient ;  but  his  father  observed  that  the  young  man  kept  his 
light  burning  late  at  night,  and,  going  into  his  room  long  after  mid- 
night, he  found  the  bed  covered  with  Greek  and  Latin  classics, 
open,  as  if  they  had  been  studicil,  and  the  boy  lying  asleep  in  the 
midst,  with  the  lighted  candle  in  his  hand. 

Aboutthis  time  a  regiment  was  quartered  in  Herder's  native  place. 


APPENDIX.  513 

The  surgeon,  a  benevolent  and  enlightened  man,  was  favorably  im- 
pressed by  the  young  Herder,  and  offered  to  take  him  to  Konigs- 
berg,  to  study  either  medicine  or  surgery,  and  to  obtain  help  for  his 
already  impaired  eyes.  The  offer  was  received  by  his  parents  as  a 
light  from  Heaven  in  a  dark  night ;  and  although  Herder  felt  no 
inclination  to  surgery,  he  regarded  this  deliverance  from  his  desti- 
tute and  oppressed  situation  with  joy. 

Immediately  after  his  arrival  at  Konigsberg  his  friend  led  him  to 
an  anatomical  school,  and  the  young  Herder  sank  fainting  upon  the 
floor ;  from  henceforth  he  could  not  hear  the  name  of  surgery  with- 
out a  nervous  shudder. 

As  he  returned  from  the  school  he  met  an  old  schoolfellow,  who 
was  a  student  of  theology,  and  he  resolved  to  present  himself  for  ex- 
amination to  the  theological  faculty  of  the  college.  He  was  imme- 
diately admitted  ;  and  although  his  worldly  possessions  were  only 
three  Prussian  dollars  and  eight  groschen,  he  wrote  to  his  parents 
that  he  would  support  himself  by  his  own  industry.  He  kept  his 
word,  although  he  practised  the  strictest  economy,  and  his  food  was 
often,  for  many  days  together,  only  bread  and  water. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  Herder  was  chosen  a  teacher  of  the  Domschule 
in  Riga,  and  began  to  preach.  With  true  religious  feeling,  Herder 
knew  how  in  his  preaching  to  excite  careless  minds  and  insensible 
hearts.  His  themes  were  immortality,  love  to  God  and  man,  and 
every  virtue.  With  soul-moving  eloquence,  the  ornaments  of  a 
youthful  fancy,  and  a  persuasive  voice,  he  seized  irresistibly  upon 
every  heart  ;  while  his  fine  speaking  countenance,  his  eloquent 
eye,  and  graceful  gestures  heightened  the  impression  made  by  his 
sermons. 

It  would  be  delightful  to  follow  Herder  through  his  life ;  but  I 
wish  to  speak  of  him  only  in  his  union  with  his  accomplished  wife. 
In  reading  the  lives  of  literary  men  and  women,  no  one  can  avoid 
the  melancholy  conviction  that  divorces,  consequently  unhappy  mar- 
riages, are  more  frequent  among  them  than  with  any  other  class. 
The  reasons  that  might  be  given  for  this  would  open  a  sorrowful 
page  in  the  history  of  women. 

It  is  delightful  to  find,  in  the  lives  of  Herder  and  his  wife,  two 

literary  characters  living  from  youth  to  age  in  the  most  beautiful 

harmony  of  mind  and  of  pursuit.     Caroline  helped  her  husband  in 

his  literary  difficulties,  sympathized  in  his  disappointments,  and  via- 

22*  GO 


514  APPENDIX. 

dicated  his  memory  in  an  eloquent  and  touching  memoir,  published 
after  liis  death. 

They  were  l)etrothed  long  before  their  poverty  would  allow  them 
to  many.  Herder  iiad  become  governor  to  a  j'oung  Prince  of 
Darmstadt,  and,  in  accompanying  him  on  a  visit  to  a  kindred 
Prince,  he  was  invited  to  preach  in  the  court  chapel.  Caroline 
gives  the  following  account  of  her  first  meeting  with  hen  future 
husband  :  — 

"  Herder  was  invited  to  preach.  I  heard  the  voice  of  an  angel, 
and  soul's-words  such  as  I  never  heard  before.  In  the  afternoon  I 
saw  him,  and  stammered  out  my  thanks  to  him.  From  this  time 
forth  our  souls  were  one.  Our  meeting  was  God's  work !  More 
intimately  could  not  hearts  be  united  than  ours.  My  love  was  a 
feeling,  a  harmony.  Ah,  certainly  no  one  knew  him  as  I  did, 
thanks  be  to  God  !  From  this  time  forward  we  saw  each  other 
daily.  I  felt  a  happiness  never  experienced  before,  but  also  an  in- 
describable melancholy;  I  feared  I  should  never  see  him  again  ! 

"  The  25ih  of  August  we  celebrated,  in  the  little  circle  of  his 
friends,  his  birthday.  He  gave  me  his  first  letter,  and  with  this 
letter  I  received  the  holiest  gift  this  earth  contained  for  me,  —  his 
love  !  Ah,  I  could  only  thank  God !  The  27th  he  left  Darmstadt, 
to  go  to  Strasburg.  At  the  moment  of  separation  I  spoke  witii  him 
for  the  first  time  alone.  But  no  words  were  necessary ;  we  were  one 
heart  and  one  soul !     No  separation  could  ever  divide  us." 

It  was  upon  this  residence  in  Strasburg,  for  an  operation  upon  his 
eyes,  that  Herder  met  Goethe,  who  has  given  a  minute  account  of 
their  intercourse  in  his  Dichtung  unci  Wci/irheit. 

Caroline  gives  the  following  account  of  tlnir  marriage:  "A 
worthy  old  clergyman  married  us,  in  the  circle  of  my  relations, 
by  the  rose-light,  of  a  beautiful  evening.  It  was  God's  blessing 
that  seemed  audibly  spoken  over  our  union.  The  separation  from 
my  sisters  was  painful,  but  he  indemnified  me  for  all,  and  gave  me 
a  thousand-fold  more  than  I  deserved.  I  thought  now  with  pain 
how,  during  our  betrotlimcnt,  I  had  tormented  liirn  with  asking 
him  to  forget  me ;  for  I  had  no  fortune,  and  possessed  no  other  ad- 
vantages to  make  Jiim  as  liappy  as  he  deserved.  In  every  letter  he 
told  me  that  I  was  the  blessing  of  his  life  ;  that  I  durst  not,  I  should 
not  leave  him,  for  thus  he  would  be  alone  in  the  world.  That  God 
would  never  leave  us ;  that  He  would  bless  our  union." 

Thirty-three  years  afterwards  Caroline  wrote  to  Jean  Paul,  on 


APPENDIX.  515 

this  anniversary  :  "  I  am  to-day  alone,  and  in  the  other  world.  It 
is  the  2d  of  May,  our  marriage  day." 

Their  marriage  was  indeed  a  happy  one.  Herder  usually  wrote 
by  the  side  of  his  wife,  and  she  assisted  him  by  copying  his  rough 
sketches  and  first  thoughts. 

Three  years  after  liis  marriage  Herder  was  invited  to  Weimar  to 
fill  the  place  of  Consistorial  Rath  and  court  preacher.  Many  re- 
ports had  preceded  Herder,  of  his  heresy  and  his  contempt  of  forms. 
They  had  said,  among  other  things,  that  he  preached  in  boots  and 
spurs,  and  that  after  every  serftion  he  rode  three  times  around  the 
church  and  out  tlie  door  on  horseback.  Accordingly,  the  church 
was  crowded  to  hear  his  first  sermon.  All  were  charmed  with  his 
eloquence.  Herder  refers  to  the  reports  about  him  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend,  where  he  says  :  "I  live  in  the  whirlpool  of  business,  a  quiet 
and  retired  life,  and  preach  in  Dr.  Luther's  coat  and  surplice." 

Herder  and  his  wife  were  both  distinguished  members  of  that 
literary  society  that  formed  around  the  Duchess  Amelia  ;  where 
they  enjoyed  the  fairest  evening  hours,  with  spiritual  men  and  ac- 
complished women,  and  read  the  Poets  and  acted  Shakespeare ; 
and  where  we  meet  again  Wieland  and  Goethe,  Knebel  and  Eiusle- 
del,  Madam  von  Kalb,  and  all  the  names  so  familiar  to  us  in  the 
life  of  Jean  Paul. 

Herder's  first  separation  from  Caroline  was  occasioned  by  a  jour- 
ney to  Italy,  where  he  spent  nearly  a  year.  This  was  the  occasion 
of  many  delightful  letters.     I  translate  only  one. 

"  To-day  is  the  day  of  our  Verlobung  in  spirit,  when  I  brought  you 
my  first  letter,  my  Caroline.  O,  a  thousand,  thousand  times  dearer 
than  when,  trembling,  I  gave  it  to  you.  0,  believe  it,  thou  much- 
tried,  good,  dear,  richly-sacrificing,  heroic  soul !  You  have  made 
me  all  that  I  now  am  ;  have  cared  for  all,  and  have  given  yourself 
to  me  a  thousand  times !  And  what  have  I  done  for  you  ?  how 
can  I  repay  you  1  Spare  your  health  ;  and  I  am  certain,  as  of  my 
existence,  that  we  shall  lead  a  new  bridal  life  together,  happier  than 
the  old  ;  for  we  are  wiser,  and  in  the  future  we  shall  be  better.  I 
am  certain  our  short  separation  has  been  a  present  from  the  All 
Good.  Remove  all  doubts  from  your  heart,  and  be  with  me  with 
thy  good,  strong  soul,  as  thy  dear,  beautiful  form  is  always  at 
my  side." 

Herder  wrote  also  to  Jacobi  at  this  time :  "I  have  a  wife  tiiat  is 


5l6  APPENDIX. 

the  tree,  the  consolation,  and  the  happiness  of  my  life.  Even  in 
quickly-flying,  transient  thoughts  (which  often  indeed  surprises  us) 
we  are  one !  She  suffers  only  when  she  sees  me  suffer ;  at  other 
times  she  is  all  peace  and  activity,  full  of  good  courage  and  cheer- 
ful views." 

Herder's  situation  in  Weimar  was  never  favorable  to  his  happi- 
ness. He  was  oppressed  with  a  multiplicity  of  affairs,  obliged  to 
preach  all  kinds  of  occasional  sermons,  especially  to  eulogize  all  the 
members  of  the  Ducal  family  ;  and  he  was  constantly  opposed  iu 
his  efforts  to  improve  the  schools  and  the  churches  under  his  care, 
and  to  place  a  barrier  against  the  fashionable  levity  and  irreverence 
for  religion  that  made  giant  strides  in  Weimar  during  the  time  of 
the  revolution  in  France. 

Herder  died,  not  of  old  age,  but,  as  his  wife  expressed  it,  "  from 
disappointment  over  his  false  position,  his  failed  life  ;  of  highly- 
excited  nerves,  and  a  heart  wounded  and  broken  by  the  evils  of  the 
times." 

After  his  death  Caroline  exerted  all  her  power  to  collect  mate- 
rials for  his  life,  which  she  did  not  publish  herself,  but  prepared 
them  for  a  literary  friend.  She  arranged  his  unpublished  papers, 
and  prepared  them  for  a  complete  edition  of  his  works ;  saw  her 
six  sons  well  established  in  life,  and  her  only  daughter  married, 
—  and  then  followed  him,  from  whom  her  thoughts  had  never 
strayed.* 

I  have  given  this  little  notice  of  the  Herders,  to  show  that  literary 
women  are  not  necessarily  eccentric  or  egotistical ;  not  necessarily 
mad  enthusiasts  or  careless  housekeepers,  faithless  wives  or  neg- 
lectful mothers,  but  that  they  may  perform  all  the  duties  of  life  as 
cheerfully,  as  gracefully,  and  as  faithfully  as  if  they  had  never  learnt 
the  alphabet  of  literature. 

•  From  the  Life  of  Herder,  by  Carl  L.  Ring. 


APPENDIX.  -  517 


IV, 


THE  Campaner  Thai  is  so  beautiful  a  work,  that  I  wish  to  give 
a  fuller  account  of  it  than  I  had  room  for  in  the  text.  It  pur- 
ports to  be  part  of  a  journal  kept  by  the  author  in  travelling  through 
France,  and  is  addressed  to  Victor,  the  hero  of  the  Hesperus.  Jean 
Paul  was  in  the  habit  of  addressing  letters  to  his  fictitious  charac- 
ters, as  to  his  other  correspondents ;  and  it  seems  as  if  it  must  have 
been  difficult  for  him  to  draw  the  line  between  his  living  and  his 
imaginary  friends. 

To  return.  In  this  imaginary  journey  he  meets  a  gentleman, 
Carlson,  galled  the  Riding-master,  who  had  been  travelling  with  a 
party  of  friends,  consisting  of  the  Baron  Wilhelmi,  his  wife,  wife's 
sister,  and  their  domestic  chaplain.  Carlson  had  been  deeply  at- 
tached to  Gione,  the  newly-married  wife  of  the  Baron ;  and  it  is 
delicately  hinted  that  the  attachment  had  been  mutual ;  but  some 
German  conventionalisms  interfering,  she  had  married,  although 
not  very  unhappily,  against  the  voice  of  her  heart.  The  party  rest 
at  an  inn,  where  a  bridal  party  are  celebrating  their  nuptials  in  one 
apartment,  while  the  young  and  beautiful  daughter  of  the  host  lies 
in  her  shroud  in  another.  The  sight  of  the  pale  face,  with  its  crown 
of  roses,  affects  Gione,  whose  nerves  are  already  weakened,  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  produce  a  fainting  fit,  so  long  as  to  assume  the  ap- 
pearance of  death.  Carlson,  whose  love  for  Gione  had  taken  the 
nun's  veil,  and  he  had  built  around  his  heart  a  cloister  wall,  is 
betrayed  by  the  sight  into  the  discovery  of  his  concealed  passion, 
which  he  expresses  in  an  ode,  "  The  Complaint  without  Consolation," 
and  leaves  the  party  before  Gione  had  recovered  from  her  swoon. 
Just  now  Jean  Paul  overtakes  him  ;  and  having  been  later  at  the 
inn,  tells  him  it  was  only  a  fainting  fit  that  had  assumed  the  appear- 
ance of  death.     He  returns  to  the  party,  and  takes  Paul  with  him. 

They  all  agree  to  travel  on  foot  through  the  beautiful  valley 
(Campaner  Thai),  situated  in  the  Upper  Pyrenees,  at  the  termi- 
nation of  which  is  the  castle  of  the  Baron,  the  future  home  of  Gione. 
The  description  of  the  valley  is  in  Jean  Paul's  best  manner,  and 
the  female  characters  are  made  known  with  exquisite  touches. 
Nadine,  the  sister,  to  whom  intercourse  with  the  world  and  a 
happy  temperament  have  given  a  playful  light,  ever  cheerful  ex- 


5i8  APPENDIX. 

terior,  is  contrasted  with  Gione,  who  has  a  tender  and  earnest 
expression,  with  a  slender  and  perfectly  Grecian  style  of  beauty. 
Carlson  is  not  an  atheist,  but  his  "  complaint  without  consola- 
tion "  has  betrayed-  his  disbelief  of  a  future  life,  and  liis  belief  in 
annihilation.  The  chaplain  is  a  disciple  of  Kant.  Jean  Paul  un- 
dertakes to  support  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
and  a  future  recognition  of  friends  beyond  the  grave.  AfreV  assert- 
ing many  proofs  drawn  from  analogy,  the  Kantian  said,  "  That 
from  the  unity  of  the  universe  it  may  be  concluded  that  emigrants 
from  the  earth  will  visit  every  planet ;  and  those  delicate  souls  who 
ehun  the  sun  will  find  themselves  happy  in  Uranus  :  that  the  widely 
differing  climates  in  the  planets  was  no  conclusion  against  the  future 
residence  of  man  upon  them,  because  man  can  accommodate  him- 
self to  every  climate." 

Jean  Paul  answered :  "  I  have  a  strong  objection  against  the 
future  toi/oge  pittnrfisijae  throutrh  the  planets ;  we  bear  in  our  own 
breasts  a  heaven,  full  of  constellations.  There  is  in  our  hearts  an 
inward,  spiritual  world,  that  breaks  like  a  sun  upon  the  clouds  of 
the  outward  world.  I  mean  that  inward  universe  of  goodness, 
beauty,  and  trutli;  three  worlds  that  are  neither  part,  nor  shoot, 
nor  copy  of  the  outward.  We  are  less  astonished  at  the  incom- 
prehensible existence  of  these  transcendent.il  heavens  because  they 
are  always  there,  and  we  foolishly  imagine  that  we  create  when  we 
merely  perceive  them.  After  what  model,  with  what  plastic  power, 
and  from  what  could  we  create  these  same  spiritual  worlds?  The 
atheist  should  ask  himself  how  he  received  the  giant  id^a  of  God, 
that  he  has  neither  opposed  nor  embodied  ?  an  idea  that  has  not 
grown  up  by  comparing  different  degrees  of  greatness,  as  it  is  the 
opposite  of  every  measure  and  degree.  In  short,  the  atheist  speaks 
as  others,  of  prototype  and  original. 

"  As  there  are  idealists  of  the  outward  world  who  believe  that 
perceiving  a  tiling  creates  the  thing  itself  so  there  are  idealists  of 
the  inward  world  who  deduce  the  being  from  the  appearing,  the 
sound  from  the  echo,  instead  of,  on  the  contrary,  inferring  appear- 
ance from  reality,  consciousness  from  tlie  object  itself  We  take 
erroneously  the  power  of  analyzing  our  inward  world  for  the  pre- 
formation of  the  same;  that  is,  we  think  oursclf  the  originator  and 
founder,  when  we  are  only  the  genealogist. 

"This  inward  world,  that  is  indeed  more  splendid  and  admirable 
than  the  outward,  needs  another  heaven  than  the  one  above  us,  and 


APPENDIX.  519 

a  higher  world  than  that  the  sun  warms  ;  therefore,  we  say  justly, 
not  a  second  earth,  or  globe,  but  a  second  world  beyond  this  uni- 
verse." 

Gione  interrupted  me :  "  And  every  virtuous  and  wise  man  is  a 
proof  of  another  world." 

"And,"  continued  Nadine,  quickly,  "  every  one  who  undeservedly 
suffers ! " 

"  Yes,"  I  answered,  "  that  is  what  draws  our  thread  of  life  through 
a  long  eternity.  The  threefold  echo  of  virtue,  truth,  and  beauty, 
created  by  the  music  of  the  spheres,  calls  us  from  this  hollow  earth 
to  the  neighborhood  of  the  music.  Why  and  wherefore  were  these 
desires  given  us  1  Merely  that,  like  a  swallowed  diamond,  they 
should  slowly  cut  through  our  earthly  covering.  Wherefore  were 
we  placed  upon  this  ball  of  earth,  creatures  with  light  wings,  if, 
instead  of  soaring  with  our  wings  of  ether,  we  are  to  fall  back  into 
the  earth-clods  of  our  birth  ?  " 

Carlson  asked  :  "  But  could  not  our  spiritual  powers  be  given  us 
to  preserve  and  heighten  the  enjoyments  of  the  present  life  1 " 

"  To  preserve  ?  "  I  answered ;  "  as  if  an  angel  would  be  impris- 
oned in  the  body  to  be  its  dumb  servant ;  its  stove-warmer  and 
butler ;  its  cusinier  and  porter  at  the  door  of  the  stomach  1  Shall 
the  ethereal  flame  merely  serve  to  fill  the  circular  stove  with  life's 
warmth,  obediently  burn  and  warm,  and  then  become  cold  and  ex- 
tinguished !  Every  tree  of  knowledge  is  a  Upas-tree  to  the  body, 
and  every  refinement  a  slow  poison  infused  into  the  cup  of  sensual 
pleasure  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  corporeal  needs  are  the  iron  key 
to  freedom  of  soul ;  the  stomach  is  the  rich  forcing-glass  of  future 
bloom  ;  and  the  different  animal  impulses  are  only  the  earthly  steps 
to  the  Grecian  temple  of  our  higher  nature. 

"  For  enjoyment  do  you  say  ?  That  is,  we  receive  the  food  of 
animals  to  satisfy  the  taste  and  hunger  of  the  gods  7  The  part  of  us 
that  is  of  earth,  this,  indeed,  like  the  earth-worm,  is  filled  and  nour- 
ished with  earthly  food.  All  the  conditions  of  our  earthly  existence 
must  be  complied  with  ere  the  demands  of  the  inward  nature  can 
be  made  known.  Is  the  bellowing  animal  circle  fed,  the  animal 
contest  finished  ;  then  the  inward  being  demands  its  nectar  and  am- 
brosial bread  ;  but  if  this  inward  being  nourishes  its  appetites  with 
earthly  food  alone,  they  become  avenging  angels,  or  change  to  a  god 
of  hell  that  impels  to  self-murder,  or  is  destroyed  in  a  poisonous 
mixture  of  all  joys.    For  the  eternal  hunger  in  man,  the  unappeased 


520  APPENDIX. 

longing  of  his  heart  demands  not  richer,  but  other  food.  Thus  our 
indigence  is  not  satisfied  with  the  quantity,  but  depends  on  the  spe- 
cies of  the  food.  The  imagination  can  paint  itself  a  degree  of  satis- 
faction, but  it  is  not  happy  in  the  accumulation  of  all  possessions, 
if  they  are  other  than  truth,  beauty,  and  goodness." 

"  But  the  finer  souls  ?  "  said  Nadine. 

I  answered  :  "  This  discrepancy  between  our  wishes  anS  our  re- 
lations, between  the  soul  and  the  earth,  remains  a  riddle  if  we  con- 
tinue ;  and  if  we  cease  to  live,  a  blasphemy.  Strangers,  born  upon 
mountains,  Ave  consume  in  lowly  places,  with  unhealthy  heiiniveh 
(home-sickness).  We  belong  to  higher  regions,  and  an  eternal  long- 
ing grows  in  our  hearts  at  music,  which  is  the  Kuhreigen  of  our 
native  Alps."  .... 

"  From  hence  what  follows  ? "  asked  the  chaplain. 

"  Not  that  we  are  unhappy,  but  that  we  are  immortal ;  and  that 
this  world  within  us  demands  and  manifests  a  second  without  us  1 
Ah,  what  can  we  not  say  upon  this  second  life,  whose  beginning 
is  so  evidently  in  this,  and  that  so  wonderfully  doubles  our  joys  ? 
Wherefore  does  a  certain  higher  purity  of  character  disable  us  from 
being  always  more  useful,  as,  according  to  Herschel,  there  are  suns 
to  which  no  earths  belong  ?  Wherefore  is  the  heart  consumed 
and  broken  by  the  long,  feverish,  but  infinite  love  for  an  infinite 
object;  and  only  alleviated  with  the  hope  that  this  heart-sickness, 
like  the  physical,  will  be  stilled  with  the  ice  of  death,  and  afterwards 
raised  ? " 

"  No,"  said  Gione,  with  a  voice  trembling  with  emotion,  "  it  is  not 
ice,  but  lightning  ;  that  when  the  heart  is  laid  on  the  altar  as  a  sac- 
rifice, falls  from  heaven  and  consumes  it,  as  a  proof  that  the  sacrifice 
is  well  pleasing  to  God." 

I  know  not  why,  but  her  touching  voice  and  eye  entered  my  soul, 
and  totally  interrupted  the  concluding  links  of  my  chain  of  argu- 
ment. 

Nadine,  who  is  usually  victorious  over  all  emotion,  was  touched 
by  her  sister's  voice.  She  reached  her  hand  into  a  neighboring 
garden,  and  took  from  under  the  hairy  leaf  of  a  potato-branch  a 
large  night-butterfly,  and  slrowed  it  to  us  with  a  calm  and  tender 
smile.  It  was  the  so-called  death's-head.  I  stroked  the  depressed 
wings,  and  said,  "  It  had  its  birlh  in  Egypt,  the  land  of  mummies 
and  graves ;  it  bears  a  memento  mori  upon  its  back,  and  a  miserere 
in  its  plaintive  note." 


APPENDIX.  521 

"  It  is,  nevertheless,  a  butterfly,"  said  the  chaplain. 

Upon  Gione's  face  again  rested  that  reflective  calmness  that  made 
her,  through  the  silence  of  her  sorrow,  so  infinitely  beautiful  and 
great.  "  Once  you  said  the  female  Psyche,  although  pierced  through 
with  burning  iron,  should  not  beat  violently  and  convulsively  her 
wings,  for  thus  she  would  destroy  her  exquisite,  unruffled  beauty ! 
Ah,  how  true  a  word  ! " 

At  this  moment  the  already  mentioned  ode  of  Carlson's  is  read, 
in  which  he  laments  the  annihilation  of  so  much  beauty  and  truth, 
and  avers  his  inconsolable  sorrow. 

Jean  Paul  resumes  :  "  I  cannot  tell  thee,  my  Victor,  how  painful, 
how  monstrous  and  horrible,  the  thought  of  an  annihilating  death, 
of  an  eternal  grave,  for  this  noble  form,  in  all  its  spiritual  beauty, 
now  appeared  to  me !  If  Carlson  was  right,  this  innocent  soul,  that 
had  never  been  happy,  would  pass  from  its  prison  upon  the  earth 
to  its  hollow  prison  under  it.  Men  often  bear  their  errors,  as  their 
truths,  about  in  words,  and  not  in  feeling;  but  let  the  believer  in 
anniliilation  place  before  him,  instead  of  a  life  of  sixty  years,  one 
of  sixty  minutes ;  then  let  him  look  upon  the  face  of  a  beloved 
being,  or  upon  a  noble  and  wise  man,  as  upon  an  aimless  hour-long 
appearance ;  as  a  thin  shadow,  that  melts  into  light,  and  leaves  no 
trace  ;  can  he  bear  the  thought?  No  !  the  supposition  of  imperish- 
ableness  is  always  with  him.  Else  there  would  hang  always  before 
his  soul,  as  before  Mahomet's,  in  the  fairest  sky,  a  black  cloud ;  and 
as  Cain  upon  the  earth,  an  eternal  fear  would  pursue  him  !  " 

I  continued,  but  all  argument  was  now  changed  to  feeling :  "  Yes, 
if  all  the  woods  upon  this  earth  were  groves  of  pleasure ;  if  all  the 
valleys  were  Campaner  valleys ;  if  all  the  islands  were  blessed,  and 
all  the  fields  Elysian ;  if  all  eyes  were  cheerful,  and  all  hearts  joy- 
ful, —  yes,  then — no  !  even  then,  had  God,  through  this  very  bles- 
sedness, made  to  our  spirits  the  promise,  the  oath  of  eternal  dura- 
tion !  But  now,  O  God  !  when  so  many  houses  are  houses  of 
mourning,  so  many  fields  battlefields,  so  many  cheeks  are  pale ; 
when  we  pass  before  so  many  eyes,  red  with  weeping  or  closed  in 
death  ;  O  !  can  the  grave,  that  haven  of  salvation,  be  the  last  swal- 
lowing, unyielding  whirlpool  1  No,  the  trampled  worm  dares  raise 
itself  towards  its  Creator,  and  say,  '  Thou  durst  not  create  me  to 
suffer  alone ! '  " 

"And  who  gives  the  worm  the  right  to  make  this  demand?" 
asked  Carlson. 


522  APPENDIX. 

Gione  answered,  Boftly :  "  The  All-Good  himself,  who  has  given 
us  compassion,  that  speaks  aloud  in  us  for  all,  and  which  alone 
would  give  us  a  hope,  a  claim  upon  him  ! " 

This  gentle  and  beautiful  word  could  not  immediately  calm  me. 
About  my  inward  eye  collected  the  forms  of  those  whose  hearts  had 
been  without  guilt,  as  tlicir  lives  without  joy ;  who  had  not^attained 
one  wish  of  their  innocent  souls,  and  were  now  lying  under  the 
snow  of  the  past;  for  they  had  been  like  men,  who,  in  freezing,  try 
to  sleep.  And  the  forms  of  those  who  have  loved  too  well,  and  lost 
all,  like  the  beautiful  one  near  me,  and  so  many  otiiers,  who  are 
most  surely  martyred  by  destiny,  as  the  beautiful  flower  Narcissus 
is  consecrated  to  the  God  of  Hell !  Then  I  remembered  your  true 
remark,  "  That  you  never  heard  the  words  sorrow  and  the  past 
spoken  by  a  woman  without  at  the  same  time  hearing  a  sigh  over 
the  eternal  union  of  those  two  words,"  —  for  women,  in  the  nar- 
rower theatre  of  their  plans,  and  with  their  ideal  wishes,  build  more 
than  we  do  upon  the  worth  of  others,  and  have  to  suffer  for  more 
failures  than  their  own. 

The  sun  sank  deeper  behind  the  mountains,  and  the  giant  shadows 
rose  like  birds  of  night  out  of  tiicir  eternal  snows  ;  I  took  the  hand 
of  Carlson,  and,  looking  in  his  beautiful,  manly  face,  I  said  :  "Ah, 
Carlson,  upon  what  a  blooming  world  do  you  throw  your  immeas- 
urable gravestone,  that  no  time  can  lift.  Your  two  difliculties,  which 
are  founded  upon  the  necessary  uncertainties  of  men,  if  solved, 
would  only  have  the  effect  to  destroy  our  faith,  which  is  the  solu- 
tion of  a  thousand  other  difficulties,  without  which  our  existence 
is  without  aim,  our  pains  without  solution,  and  the  Godlike  trinity 
in  our  breast  three  avenging  spirits.  From  the  formless  earthworm 
up  to  the  beaming  human  countenance;  from  the  chaos  of  the  iirst 
day  up  to  the  present  age  of  the  world  ;  from  the  first  faint  motion 
of  the  heart  to  its  full,  bold  throbbing  in  the  breast  of  manhood,  the 
invisible  hand  of  God  leads,  protects,  and  nourishes  the  inward 
being,  —  the  nursling  of  the  outward;  educates  and  polishes,  and 
makes  it  beautiful,  —  and  wherefore?  That  when  it  stands  as  a 
demi-god  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins  of  the  temjjlc  of  the  body,  upright 
and  elevated,  the  blow  of  death  may  prostrate  it  forever,  that  noth- 
ing shall  remain  from  the  corpse-veiled,  the  mourning  and  mantled, 
imiiieasurablo  universe,  but  the  eternally  sowing,  never  Iiarvcsting, 
solitary  spirit  of  the  world  !  One  eternity  looking  despairingly  at 
the  other!  and  in  the  whole  spiritual  universe  no  end,  no  aim  I 


APPENDIX.  523 

And  all  these  contradictions  and  riddles,  whereby  not  merely  the 
harmony,  but  the  strings,  of  creation  are  tangled,  must  we  take, 
merely  on  account  of  the  two  difficulties,  that  indeed  o.ur  annihila- 
tion cannot  solve  !  *  Beloved  Carlson !  into  this  harmony  of  the 
spheres,  that  is  not  over,  but  ever  around  us,  will  you  bring  your 
shrieking  discord  1  See  how  gently  and  touchingly  the  day  departs, 
and  how  holily  the  night  comes  !  O,  can  you  not  believe  that  even 
thus  our  spirits  shall  arise  from  the  dust,  as  you  once  saw  the  full 
moon  rise  from  the  crater  of  Vesuvius  ?  " 

Carlson  touched  accidentally  the  strings  of  Clone's  lute  that  he 
carried. 

Gione  took  it  with  one  hand,  and  gave  him  the  other,  while  she 
said,  in  a  low  tone:  "  Among  us  all  will  you  alone  be  tormented 
with  this  despairing  faith  f     You,  who  deserve  one  so  beautiful  1 " 

Her  words  touched  the  buried  love  of  his  long-closed  heart,  and 
two  hot  drops  fell  from  his  blinded  eyes.  He  looked  at  the  moun- 
tains, and  said :  "  I  can  bear  no  annihilation  but  my  own !  My  heart 
is  of  your  opinion ;  my  head  will  slowly  follow." 

The  party  now  drew  near  the  castle,  the  future  home  of  Gione, 
which  was  already  illuminated,  and  filled  with  music  to  receive  its 
mistress  ;  and  tlie  book  closes  with  the  celebration  of  her  nuptials. t 

Jean  Paul  called  the  Campaner  Thai  the  living  work  of  youth. 
In  it  the  proofs  of  immortality  are  drawn  more  from  feeling  than 
from  philosophical  investigation.  In  the  Selina,  which  was  begun 
on  the  burial-day  of  his  son  Max,  he  intended  it  should  be  other- 
wise. The  same  party  are  introduced,  with  the  changes  that  would 
naturally  take  place  in  thirty  years.  Gione,  the  beloved  of  Carlson, 
is  dead,  but  in  her  daughter  Selina  she  has  left  a  full  echo  of  her 
heart  and  a  bright  reflection  of  her  form.  Her  voice  also  resembles 
her  mother's,  and  she  enhances  the  likeness  by  always  wearing  her 
mother's  favorite  colors. 

Upon  Carlson,  who  had  borne  his  love-veiled  heart  into  many 
Lands,  time  had  left  few  marks.  From  the  melancholy  shadows 
that  hovered  over  his  noble  countenance,  and  the  traces  of  pain 
about  the  firmly-closed  mouth,  it  was  difficult  to  determine  whether 
his  sorrow  had  been  recent  or  remote. 

*  Carlson's  two  difficulties  were  the  uncertainty  of  our  union  with  the  body  and 
of  our  union  with  friends  in  a  future  world, 
t  This  short  extract  will  give  the  reader  but  an  imperfect  idea  of  the  work. 


524  ATPEXDIX. 

Carlson  had  at  length  married  a  lady  of  the  court  of  Albano  and 
Idoine,  and  was  the  father  of  two  sons.  He  had  become  a  firm 
believer  in  a  future  life ;  but  his  eldest  son,  Alexander,  professed 
his  father's  ancient  faith  in  annihilation  ;  and  on  Jean  Paul's  visit, 
with  which  the  book  commences,  this  faith  is  combatted  with  philo- 
sophical arguments  and  poetical  illustrations  of  the  mosb  beautiful 
order. 

Paul  says,  among  other  beautiful  things,  that  "  our  investigations 
of  our  immortality  are  too  often  held  in  a  time  of  sorrow  and  mourn- 
ing, when  we  seize  the  proofs  from  spiritual  necessity,  and  therefore 
they  are  not  transparent.  The  graves  of  others  are  like  icy  moun- 
tains, that  traveller's  visit  with  veils  upon  their  faces. 

"  My  principal  object  in  Selina  has  been  to  gain  a  height  where 
the  prospect  may  be  open  on  every  side,  where  the  glance  may  be 
freely  thrown  into  the  grave,  into  earth  and  heaven.  Endeavor  to 
free  the  mind  from  systems  and  early  prejudices,  and  then  look 
boldly  around.  Do  you  find  no  consolation  near,  rise  and  seek  it 
higher  ;  like  the  bird  of  paradise,  who,  when  his  feathers  are  ruffled 
by  storms,  rises  higher,  where  none  exist." 

Speaking  of  the  church,  he  says  :  "  To  the  crucifixion  and  girdle 
of  thorns  they  should  add  hopes  and  joys ;  or  flowers,  as  well  as 
herbs.  In  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  they  grow  herbs  and  emetic 
wine ;  but  the  little  Hamburg  piece  of  land  and  the  little  church 
flower-plot  is  wanting,  as  cheerfulness  is  wanting  in  religion." 


V. 

THE  friendship  between  Otto  and  Jean  Paul  was  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  that  literary  history  has  made  known  to  us. 
But  the  frequent  outbreaking  jealousy  of  Otto,  at  what  he  imagined 
approaching  coldness  in  Paul,  was  the  occasion  of  many  letters  that 
disclose  the  generous  and  forbearing  spirit  of  his  friend.  As  these 
letters  would  have  taken  too  much  room  for  the  body  of  the  work, 
I  have  placed  some  extracts  from  them  in  the  Appendix.  Otto's 
were  written  immediately  after  Paul  finally  left  Hof  to  accompany 
his  brother  to  Leipzig. 


APPENDIX.  525 

FROM  OTTO  TO  EICHTER. 

"  You  have  appeared  to  me,  my  Richter,  in  these  latter  times,  to 
be  uo  longer  the  same.  Inspired  by  fame,  you  only  now  and  then 
returned  to  yourself  and  to  me;  when,  in  a  moment  of  emotion, 
your  countenance  itself  (but  probably  under  the  thought  of  separa- 
tion) painfully  declared  it.  Your  short  letters,  if  you  were  neces- 
sarily absent,  wounded  me ;  and  when  in  the  evening  you  came, 
our  conversation  was  constrained  and  one-syllabled.  I  missed 
everywhere  the  accustomed  warmth  of  our  former  life :  we  had 
become  strangers  to  each  other.  Thus  we  lived  near  each  other,  in 
different  houses,  and  nothing  but  the  near  neighborhood  seemed  to 
bring  us  together.  I  felt  as  if  I  must  withdraw  in  some  degree  of 
self-dependence  within  myself,  and  not  advance  too  submissively ; 
thus  I  endeavored  to  harden  myself  in  your  absence,  but  never  in 
your  presence.  I  consented  that  you  should  live  with  others,  but  a 
secondary  sympathy  through  narration  I  could  not  give  up.  I  said, 
as  I  withdrew  into  myself,  Man  can  have  nothing  nearer  than  him- 
self; he  must,  let  him  be  what  he  will,  have  a  reliance  upon  himself; 
he  must  be  self-grounded.  If  he  would  be  self-consistent,  he  must 
advance  and  rise  by  himself.  The  judgment  that  he  must  pass 
upon  himself  can  be  formed  through  no  foreign  help ;  he  must 
therefore  depend  solely  upon  himself. 

"  Rank  and  station  appeared  to  exert  an  increasing  influence 
upon  you,  and  you  appeared  to  give  into  the  pretension  to  both 
that  distinguished  and  accomplished  talent  establishes.  You  be- 
lieved that  you  penetrated  all  things  (but  sometimes  you  yield  to 
first  impressions  that  you  rarely  contradict  with  the  second),  and, 
as  you  did  not  betray  yourself,  you  thought  I  should  not  perceive 
your  feelings  ;  but  I  knew  quickly  all  that  you  felt,  for  all  that  in- 
terests so  deeply  makes  us  penetrating  and  sharp-sighted.*  .... 

"  When  I  wrote  the  above,  I  said  to  myself.  Yes,  we  are  forever 
divided  ;  but  you  w  d  never  find  a  man  a  friend  who  will  love  and 
understand  you  better.  Ah  !  there  is  much  passed  that  will  never 
return.  The  most  precious  bloom  and  consciousness  of  beauty  in 
every  thing,  in  every  being,  when  once  past,  never,  never  returns ; 
all  disposition,  every  effort,  every  exertion  to  recall  it  helps  nothing  — 
but  to  make  the  loss  more  deeply  felt.     In  vain  we  stretch  out  our 

*  There  are  many  more  charges,  too  long  to  be  inserted.  Paul's  answer  makes 
them  apparent. 


526  APPENDIX. 

hands  ;  nothing  returns  but  the  longing  and  the  shadow,  that  van- 
ishes when  we  would  hold  it. 

"  At  that  time,  long  passed,  when  sleeping  together,  we  never 
thought  of  speaking ;  we  thought  not  of  entertaining  each  other. 
I  neither  saw,  nor  feared,  nor  thouglit,  nor  felt  that  yoa^could  de- 
scend tome!  Ah,  then  it  was  other  and  better  than  now!  Now 
I  sit  alone,  and  think  of  those  lost  times  of  freedom  and  equality. 
But  since  I  liave  been  compelled  to  understand  that  our  roses  are 
withered,  I  have  gained  self-reliance,  that  came  not  indeed  from 
reason,  but  from  necessity  ;  and  I  am  obliged  to  acknowledge  that 
I  am  reduced  to  myself. 

"In  that  early  time,  when  you  found  me  in  the  upper  apartment; 
when  we  were  pressed  to  impart  to  each  other;  and  if  we  were  silent 
it  was  not  oppressive,  and  we  parted  again,  strengthened  and  joyful. 
Formerly,  you  enjoyed  for  me  as  for  yourself ;  now,  for  yourself 
alone.  Formerly,  the  fleeting  and  changing  joys  of  the  moment 
were  prolonged,  and  received  a  greater  value  from  the  thought  of 
repeating  and  enjoying  them  again  with  me.  Think  not  that  I  do 
not  miss  this  communion.  That  I  have  not  reminded  you  of  it  was 
because  I  would  only  receive  the  gift  with  tlie  double  value,  that 
generosity  makes  itself  doubly  iiappy  when  it  imparts  to  another. 
Formerly,  you  were  more  lenient  towards  every  one, — you  csioemed 
what  every  one  gave,  according  to  his  good  will,  and  not  after  the 
measure  of  his  mental  riches  ;  now,  you  demand,  besides  the  gift, 
that  the  giver  sliould  be  rich.  Now  you  take  consciously  what  you 
formerly  received  unconsciously. 

"  By  degrees  your  letters  became  colder,  hastier,  more  selfish,  — 
self-sustained,  measured,  prudent,  passing  more  ceremoniously  over 
the  present,  and  anticipating  the  future  with  no  animating  hope ; 
and  in  your  letters  the  cold  you  would  more  frequently  come,  if  you 
did  not  reluctantly  recollect  yourself,  than  the  intimate  and  precious 
thou  (dd). 

"  I  am  not  susceptible  !  You  do  not  yet  wholly  understand  me  ; 
and  my  worst  and  best  sides  not  just!)'. 

"If  you  should  return  again,  you  could  not  alter.  The  past  will 
never  return  !  The  tender,  once  blooming,  but  not  perennial  past, 
never,  never !  There  is  a  self-confidence,  a  repose  in  one's  self,  that 
suffers  every  man  to  be  what  he  can  be ;  and  to  mine  belongs  this 
faith  in,  this  clear  perception  of,  an  unchangeable  destiny.  I  knew 
too  well  that  it  depended  most  upon  me  ;  but  yet,  somewhat  upoQ 


APPENDIX.  527 

you.  I  have  never,  never  believed  you  inconstant,  and  never  will. 
Say,  always,  that  I  do  you  injustice  ;  say  that  I  misunderstand  you  ; 
but  yet  I  cannot  conceal  from  you  that  I  believe  you  have  not  yet 
left  all  the  errors  of  your  life  behind  you;  that  it  seems  to  me  as  if 
you  stood  very  near  the  last ;  and  that  it  is  my  fervent  wish  and 
hope,  if  you  conquer  it,  or  can  ever  conquer  it,  that  we  should  again 
approach  each  other. 

"  Be  not  angry  on  account  of  what  I  have  written  ;  or,  if  you  are 
and  must  be,  tell  me  so  at  least;  be  not  silent,  —  this  time  not 
silent.  In  future,  as  often  and  as  long  as  you  will.  But  if  you 
are  silent,  —  if  you  can  be  angry  with  me,  yet  I  will  love  you  as 
formerly,  as  now,  unalterably,  as  none  other  !  eternally  !  eternally  ! 
"  Thine !  «  q-j<j<q  « 

Richter  answered  immediately,  and  would  not  by  a  single  day's 
delay  allow  Otto  to  think  he  was  wounded. 

"  Dear  Otto  :  Your  letter  gave  me,  occasionally,  little  shudders  ; 
but  it  is  well  that  you  should  lay  before  me  the  whole  web  of  your 
errors,  that  I  may  unravel  them.  May  you  never,  in  future,  weave 
a  single  thread  that  shall  cut  into  your  heart.  How  have  you  mis- 
understood me,  but  always  from  love  !  and  all  that  gives  me  pain 
in  your  letter  is  your  sorrow. 

"  I  will  now  go  through  with  all  the  objections  against  me  in 
your  letter,  either  to  acknowledge  or  remove  them,  —  this  is  the  only 
way  to  relieve  the  oppressive  fulness  of  my  lieart. 

"  '  R.  appears  to  me  so  absorbed  by  fame  as  not  to  remain  wholly 
himself.'  I  have  often  thought  that  to  many  I  should  appear  thus, 
and  that  they  would  thus  represent  me.  But  I  assure  you,  my  Otto, 
my  inward  being  cannot,  by  all  the  laurels  in  the  world,  be  raised 
one  inch  higher  than  it  was  before  the  publication  of  the  Mummy.* 
I  have  a  humility  within  me  that  no  man  can  guess,  and  that  is  not 
a  victory  over,  but  a  necessity  of,  my  nature ;  as  I  alone  know  how 
to  separate  my  industry,  my  added  growth  of  years,  from  my  natural 

powers.    Towards  the  R s,  towards  Renata,  towards  your  family 

I  am  as  I  have  always  been ;  but  when  the  mercantile,  despising, 
money-loving,  egotistical  Hofers  came,  then  not  my  intellectual 
nature,  that  the  public  alone  have  praised  too  much,  but  my  moral 

*  The  Mummy  was  another  name  for  Siebenkds,  or  Flower,  Fruit,  and 
Thorn  Piecet. 


528  APPENDIX. 

nature  arose,  and  compared  the  Hofers  with  strangers ;  and  I  could 
not  forget  how  they  formerly,  and  indeed  always,  have  treated  me, 
and  liow  they  despised  and  deserted  my  poor  mother  in  her  poverty. 
Rememher  that  the  contempt  (a  contempt  that  I  felt  much  more 
strongly  in  my  poverty)  was  only  expressed  against  arrogance,  at 
least  against  the  H s  never,  never  against  thee  or  thinb  ! 

"  Evenings  when  we  met  we  sought  painfully  for  conversation  ; 
he  appeared  to  let  himself  down  to  me  ;  sought  to  talk  politics,  to 
speak  of  the  peace,  &c. 

"  This  suspicion  had  heen  fearful  to  me  if  I  had  guessed  it,  and  I 
should  have  been  altogether  silent,  or  remained  away.  But  with 
you,  my  Otto,  I  felt  always  that  fantasying  freedom  to  speak  either 
about  everything  or  nothing.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  happy  I  went 
from  you,  because  I  had  been  excused  the  trouble  and  eiuiui  of  seek- 
ing after  conversation.  Mc,  poor  innocent,  how  pitiful  my  quiet 
satisfaction  now  appears  to  me  !  I  asked  about  the  peace  because 
the  newspapers  torment  me,  and  I  read  them  very  unwillingly,  and 
your  opinion  was  more  valuable  to  me  than  my  own ;  and  tlie  idol- 
atry in  these  for  the  to  me  scarcely  human  French,  permitted  me 
no  questions.  Politics  or  history  always  turned  a  new  side  towards 
us,  and  was  more  prolific  than  any  other  subject.  Then  our  Schwar- 
zenbach  conversation  had  the  double  charm  of  exchanging  mutually 
our  novelties  from  the  eight  days' separation.  Your  judgment  upon 
politics,  and  not  my  own,  was  the  only  one  that  I  had  faith  in.  I 
never  thouglit  that  friendship  need  entertain,  or  that  silence  was  a 
sign  that  the  lieart  was  cold. 

"  Of  the  '  letting  down,'  had  my  heart,  as  my  understanding,  no 
sense,  — never  a  thought.  Ah  !  how  can  I  represent  to  myself  such 
an  idea  ?  Yes,  our  personal  separation  was  indeed  a  happiness  if 
such  a  monstrous,  infinitely  painful,  suspicion  was  to  continue  to 
gain  strength.  Or,  if  not  the  separation,  a  letter  such  as  you  have 
written. 

"  '  Concealing  my  departure.'  Tliis  you  do  not  understand.  I 
do  not  kno^y  whether  you  are  acquainted  with  the  fearfully  destroy- 
ing power  of  emotion  that  the  excitement  of  imagination  leaves. 
What  I  see,  and  do  not  think  about,  I  can  bear ;  but  if  the  object 
turns  from  the  eye  to  tlie  fancy,  which  is  the  key  of  my  heart,  then 
the  weakening  power  of  emotion  is  so  great  that  I  seek  levity  in- 
stead of  tenderness,  merely  that  I  may  not  think.  I  could  write 
slieets  upon  this  sulyect.     Formerly  I  loved  the  storms  of  feeling; 


APPENDIX.  529 

but  no  longer,  for  they  destroy.  I  ask  for  little  from  the  world  that 
I  have  already  tasted  ;  less  on  account  of  the  pain  than  the  physical 
consequences.  Emotion  is  never  wholly  bitter  when  the  love  therein 
makes  it  sweet ;  but  I  would  deny  it  if  it  injured  others. 

"  The  last  Sunday  I  was  with  you  there  arose  in  me  a  whole 
world  of  tears  as  I  looked  at  you  ;  and  as  I  saw  in  your  expression 
the  same  emotion,  I  could  look  no  longer,  but  stifled  my  tears  and 
left  you  rather. 

"  '  He  believes  that  he  has  discovered  everything.'  I  believe  it, 
never  !  As  I  know  that,  on  account  of  my  imagination,  I  see  noth- 
ing justly  in  the  beginning;  and  also  that  at  first  all  things  —  men, 
places,  books,  music  —  appear  to  me  too  good. 

"  '  He  considers  me  vain.'  I  have  never  found  tliis  vanity  exer- 
cised towards  me.  I  was  satisfied  with  everything  in  you,  and 
thought  you  knew  it.  I  never  think  when  I  love  any  one  of  assur- 
ing him  of  my  esteem.  In  the  ecstasy  of  love  I  see  nothing  ;  I  think 
not  of  appearances,  I  merely  rejoice.  When  I  made  you  guilty 
of  vanity,  and  wrote  you  a  cold  letter,  it  was  when  you  were  at 
Bayreuth. 

"  '  Ah,  there  is  much  past  that  will  never  return.'  Every  stroke 
of  the  clock  is  to  me  the  funeral-bell  of  a  past  emotion,  but  also  the 
baptismal-bell  of  a  new  one.  Ah,  the  twenty  years'  feeling  of  friend- 
ship, the  twenty  years'  delight  of  love,  are  past,  and  will  enjoy  no 
eartlily  morning ;  but  as  old  stars  go  down  new  ones  rise.  No  emo- 
tion remains  the  same,  but  the  new-born  are  sweeter ;  and  the  heart, 
if  it  is  more  unhappy,  is  not  colder  than  of  old.  Upon  this  subject 
I  could  write  a  book.  Nothing  fades  !  The  growing  plant  throws 
off  its  leaves  in  harvest,  but  it  blossoms  again,  and  at  length  is  a 
perfect  tree.     Man  has  many  springs,  and  no  winter. 

"  '  Why  do  I  tell  you  so  little  of  myself.'  Ah,  innocent  as  a  child 
do  I  stand  before  thee.  The  eternal  repetition  of  my  I  was  hateful 
to  me,  as  I  could  only  speak  of  my  works.  Every  day  the  indi- 
vidual features  became  worse,  and  I  gave  you,  unwillingly,  a  his- 
tory, that,  as  I  became  more  accustomed  to  it,  appeared  only  a 
perpetual  abstract  of  the  same  thing  ;  and,  further,  I  did  not  think 
you  expected  it 

"  I  have  read  yours,  and  this  letter  again.  Mine  does  not  satisfy 
me.  In  yours  I  find  excellent  remarks,  and  a  love  that  I  can  never 
forget,  although  the  same  faults  that  you  reproach  me  with,  namely, 

23  HH 


53>^  APPENDIX. 

upon  you  aloue  has  my  new  relation  with  the  public  produced  a 
change 

"  I  never  mingle  you  with  others  ;  my  feeling  for  you  is  unique, 
and  belongs  to  no  other  human  being.  Often  when  I  hear  musiC; 
and  long  for  my  Hofer  friends,  you  alone  come  before  rr\y  heart ; 
and  it  is  always,  as  it  was  lately  in  a  dream,  when  Renata  appeared 
grown  old,  and  your  younger  brother  led  Albretch  with  swollen 
lips  !  At  last  you  came ;  and  for  joy  loudly  weeping,  I  fell  upon 
your  neck,  and  awoke  ! 

"  Only  when  I  need  to  shall  I  write.  Ah,  that  is  always.  But 
I  have  no  time ;  and  when  the  need  is  strongest  I  had  rather  not 
write,  but  fantasy  on  the  piano  ;  that  gently  quiets  the  longing  that 
writing  increases.  Ah,  every  year  my  love  for  you  increases,  be- 
comes purer  and  nobler,  spite  of  the  faults  that  I  discover  in  you. 
I  would  that  it  were  the  same  with  you !  When  in  the  spring  I 
again  find  myself  in  the  blooming  circle  of  your  love,  and  the  old 
disturbing  relations  have  passed  into  pure  benevolence,  then  we 
shall  find  no  firmer  love  and  joy,  but  a  higher,  a  greater,  a  more 
heavenly,  —  and  I  willingly  give  the  past  for  the  future. 

"  Nevertheless,  you  only  are  right.  I  fail  often  without  knowing 
it.  There  are  also  other  reasons  why  you  misunderstand  me.  I 
have  more  faults  than  you  know.  Until  now  I  have  only  given 
negative  answers ;  to  the  positive  belong  a  book.  How  strange  it 
has  been  the  last  year  with  my  inward  being  no  one  can  guess. 
Enough.  I  give  you  again  my  hand,  and  say,  forgive  me,  for  I 
have  nothing  to  forgive  !  Forget  your  pain,  and  stand  by  me  eter- 
nally, as  I  by  you  !  "  B." 


APPENDIX.  531 


VI. 


ONE  other  journey  of  Richter's  deserves  a  place,  because  it  has 
been  the  occasion  of  a  very  pleasant  description  of  the  amuse- 
ments of  the  court  of  Kurland,  published  by  Cotta  in  the  Ladies' 
Pocket-Book ;  and  shows  that  the  cheerful,  hospitable  country  life  at 
a  German  court  is  very  much  like  the  country  life  of  the  wealthy 
classes  in  England. 

Jean  Paul  was  rewarded,  i.  the  year  1819,  for  the  want  of  a  spring 
journey  by  the  splendid  blue  harvest  weeks  in  Lobichau,  the  estate 
of  the  Duchess  of  Kurland,  where,  with  her  three  daughters  and  her 
sister,  the  Countess  Eliza  von  der  Reck,  and  a  multitude  of  distin- 
guished visitors,  —  literary  men,  artists,  and  beautiful  women,  — 
they  lived  after  the  true  old  German  custom,  in  princely  hospitality. 
I  translate  from  the  printed  account. 

"If  I  should  now  tell  you  that  a  quarter  of  a  hundred  strangers 
have  made  the  castle  their  autumn  quarters,  and  that  sometimes  on 
Sundays  thirty-five  guests  sit  down  in  the  dining-saloon,  you  would 
not  wonder  if  I  should  go  on  to  say  that  there  are  not  many  exam- 
ples of  guests  remaining  only  a  few  days.  Besides  those  from  the 
neighboring  city,  who  can  come  and  go  when  they  please,  there  are 
many,  like  myself,  who  stay  from  the  31st  of  August  to  the  17th  of 
September.  There  are  others,  with  families,  who  have  been  here 
four,  five,  six  weeks.  But  at  last,  dearest,  I  will  surprise  you  with 
the  fact,  for  you  cannot  yet  guess  the  reason  of  the  union  of  so  many 
people  in  one  place,  so  that  guests  of  every  species  sit  or  wander 
about.  Counts  and  countesses,  barons  and  baronesses,  doctors  of 
medicine  and  doctors  of  theology,  doctors  of  justice  and  laws,  presi- 
dents and  painters,  sons  of  the  muses,  poets,  all  with  or  without 
•wife  and  children.  For  the  present,  to  mention  only  the  poets, 
there  are  Schink,  Tiedge,  and  myself.  .... 

"  But,  my  good  reader,  you  would  know,  from  a  true  hand,  the 
Duchess  of  Kurland,  and  how  a  princess,  who  can  summon  together 
such  a  wide  circle,  can  hold  them  fast  in  a  ring  of  enchantment. 
Her  name  would  often  be  pronounced  with  delight  in  the  whole  of 
Europe,  but  she  loves  rather  to  bloom  in  the  midst  of  the  surround- 
ing blossoms  of  her  daughters  ;  for  whoever  would  look  with  pene- 
tration behind  the  enchanting  eye,  and  deeper  than  the  beautiful 


532  APPENDIX. 

face,  where  the  soul,  with  its  peace  and  mildness  and  love,  dwells, 
would  find  the  face  faded  little  by  time,  for  the  inward  keeps  the 
outward  young. 

"  But  I  will  describe  the  Lobichau  daily  life  itself,  and  begin  in 
the  morning,  when  all  is  apparently  solitary  and  calm.  ,  Every 
guest  breakfasts  in  his  own  room,  and  merely  sees  from  his  window 
—  if,  like  myself,  he  has  one  upon  the  balcony  —  ladies  wandering 
at  that  cool  morning  hour  in  the  park  ;  or  a  few  chambermaids,  who 
are  not  yet  before  the  hot  fire,  engaged  in  folding  and  plaiting  their 
mistresses'  white  dresses.  Many  gentlemen,  who  belong  to  the 
learned  class,  are  at  work  among  their  papers ;  but  if  it  is  with 
them  as  with  me,  they  bring  little  to  pass.  A  little  later,  morning 
visits  begin  from  the  gentlemen  to  the  ladies,  such  as  from  me  to 
my  friend  the  Fraulein  von  Ende,  whose  apartment,  with  that  of  her 
son,  is  close  to  mine.  The  princesses,  who  live  in  the  adjoining 
palace  of  Tannefeld,  now  receive  visits  from  young  gentlemen  or 
from  me.  The  Duchess  Dorothea  sits  in  her  chamber  and  reads 
and  writes. 

"  All  this  goes  on  after  the  early  private  breakfast,  and  before  the 
call  to  the  general  breakfast,  that  takes  place  about  twelve  o'clock. 
Many,  among  whom  I  place  myself,  are  of  opinion  that  the  word 
breakfast  is  altogether  unjust,  for  apparently  this  is  what  used  to  be 
called,  after  the  good  old  custom,  although  an  hour  later,  the  Ger- 
man dinner.  It  consists  of  a  multitude  of  warm  dishes,  such  as  are 
to  be  served  at  what  used  to  be  called  the  German  supper,  at  six 
o'clock ;  but  which  is  now,  an  hour  later,  called  our  dinner,  and 
differs  from  the  lircakfast,  not  by  the  greater  variety  of  dishes,  but 
by  more  distinguished  splendor  in  the  service,  which  for  the  stomach 
in  its  reckoning  of  time  has  little  weight.  Whoever,  from  love  to 
the  old  customs,  or  from  any  other  cause,  prefers  the  old  dining  hour 
of  two  or  three  o'clock,  may  remain  away  without  excuse,  for  all 
may  come  and  go ;  and  conversation  and  dressing  goes  on,  free 
from  all  court  restraints. 

"  I  consider  the  princess  happy  who  can  wear  a  light  hat,  free 
from  the  heavy  weight  of  a  royal  crown,  for  she  can  bow  her  head 
without  inconvenience  to  the  humblest  field-flower  of  joy,  or  raise  it 
to  the  highest  star  for  devotion.  The  canopy  6f  the  throne  is  open 
to  the  prince,  and  leaves  him  some  little  freedom  of  prospect ;  bat 
the  courtier  is  often  more  closely  imprisoned  by  the  flowery  chain 
of  favor  than  by  the  fetters  of  displeasure.     The  princess  is  bound, 


APPENDIX.  533 

at  the  same  time,  by  the  hereditary  golden  chain  of  rank,  the  silken 
cord  of  sex,  that  enfolds  her  like  an  ornament,  and  the  iron  ring  of 
conventional  custom. 

"Freedom  descends  here  to  little  things  ;  for  say  what  you  will, 
dearest,  it  is  very  agreeable  to  a  literary  counsellor  like  myself,  if  he 
is  about  to  appear  at  court,  and  has  no  three-cornered  hat,  and  no 
shoes,  and  consequently  would  have  to  borrow  them,  to  be  able  to 
appear  as  he  is.  Wonderful  indeed  is  it  that  at  court,  where  every- 
thing rounds  itself  into  a  circle,  the  hat  alone  must  show  its  three- 
pointed  corners,  or  that  the  throne  should  be  a  Vesuvius,  which  it 
is  well  known  can  only  be  ascended  in  shoes.  But  what  is  the 
absence  of  extensive  or  minute  forms  of  constraint  to  the  blessed 
power  of  freedom  of  speech  1  Fair  reader,  you  may  sit  at  the  table 
at  Labichau,  or  afterwards  upon  the  sofa,  and  attack  or  defend  any 
opinion  you  please.  You  may  be  for  or  against  Magnetism,  for  or 
against  the  Jews,  for  or  against  Ultras  or  Liberals.  Yes,  you  can, 
in  the  last  circumstance,  if  you  are  a  lady,  raise  your  beautiful  voice 
the  loudest  for  Liberalism  ;  no  one  will  say  anything  against  it,  or, 
at  most,  give  his  reasons.  There  happened  a  political  contention, 
where  all  fought  together,  —  the  learned,  princesses,  and  the  other 
ladies,  — when  the  always  calm  and  cheerful  Dorothea  entered  upon 
the  theatre  of  the  war.  Immediately  the  burning  beams  and  oppos- 
ing lights,  that  were  rushing  together,  sank  apart,  and  changed  into 
a  mild,  pure  radiance,  in  which  all  could  see  and  rejoice.  This 
freedom  in  social  conversation,  as  in  social  enjoyment,  is  now  the 
contract  social  in  Lobichau.  Give  but  freedom,  and  both  joy  and 
knowledge  will  advance  of  themselves.  The  tree  of  freedom  sup- 
ports the  clusters  of  the  vine  of  joy  as  well  as  the  branches  of  the 
tree  of  knowledge. 

"  I  remark,  first,  that  we  have  not  yet  risen  from  the  table  of  the 
so-called  breakfast,  where,  if  conversation  succeeds,  it  may  endure 
some  hours.  Afterwards  every  one  goes  where  it  may  seem  to  him 
good  ;  into  his  study  or  his  reading;  apartment,  where  he  may  pro- 
vide himself  from  the  select  French  and  German  library  of  the 
Duchess,  or  into  the  library  itself;  or,  if  it  be  a  lady,  into  her  dress- 
ing-room, to  prepare  for  the  evening  dinner ;  or,  as  I  often  do,  into 
the  carriage  with  the  Countess  Eliza  von  der  Reck,*  where  I  see, 

*  The  Countess  von  der  Reck  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  female  authors 
of  Germany. 


534  APPENDIX. 

in  this  distingnished  woman,  in  her  pious  will,  her  firm  faith,  and 
warm  love,  a  wholly  different  being  than  in  the  journals  of  Biesters 
or  Nicholai ;  or,  at  last,  I  and  many  others  go  to  Tannefeld  to  the 
princesses,  who  rarely  all  appear  at  the  mid-day  breakfast.  All  in 
that  little  dwelling-room  is  as  brightly  cheerful  as  if  it,  with  the 
chambers  of  the  heart  therein,  formed  together  a  spring  t&mple  for 
the  sun.  There  are  Johanne  and  Pauline  and  Wilhelmine,  and 
sometimes  the  beloved  loving  mother,  with  her  guests  from  the  hall, 
united  in  cheerful  conversation  or  business ;  as  we  said  above,  it  is 
open  to  every  guest. 

"  The  evening  dinner,  that  begins  about  seven  o'clock,  lasts,  after 
we  have  risen  from  the  table,  till  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  and  this  is 
the  most  delightful  part  of  the  day.  It  possesses  a  charm  that  fills 
and  rejoices  every  heart ;  for  one  becomes  weary  of  the  harvest  of 
joy  merely,  when  they  do  not  gather  the  fruit  from  the  tree  itself. 

"  About  seven  o'clock  the  writer,  whose  window  opens  upon  the 
balcony  that  leads  to  the  several  apartments,  has  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  the  guests  collect  for  dinner,  and  he  could  have  thrown 
flowers  upon  the  beautiful  heads  of  the  ladies  as  they  passed  under 
his  window.  All  the  inhabitants  of  the  Tannefeld  enchanted  castle 
appear  at  the  evening  dinner,  and  remain  to  share  the  evening  joy  ; 
and  for  a  benevolent  heart  it  is  a  beautiful  spectacle  to  see  with 
what  mutual  joy  mother  and  daughters  meet  after  a  short  separii- 
tion  ;  and  how  with  them  those  signs  of  tenderness  which  have  be- 
come vapid  in  the  world  receive  a  new  dignity  and  warmth  through 
their  heartfelt  sincerity. 

"  The  dinner  now  begins  under  the  departing  beams  of  the  sun. 
Upon  the  writer  the  long  table,  to  which  sometimes,  especially  on 
Sundays,  a  supplementary  was  added,  filled  with  gay  youths,  with 
the  dare  obscure  of  twilight,  which  before  the  artificial  lights  were 
brought  in  excited  the  gay  society  most  agreeabU' ;  but  upon  the 
writer  (to  whom  it  always  renewed  the  memory  of  his  childhood's 
years,  where,  in  the  poor  village  of  his  birth,  the  evening  meal  in 
summer  was  taken  in  the  soft  'twilight)  it  made  a  childlike,  poeti- 
cal, enchanting  impression, 

"  What  took  place  after  dinner  it  would  be  difficult  to  prophesy. 
Sometimes  a  celebrated  violinist,  as  it  hajjpened  twice,  played  for 
us.  Princess  Paulino,  and  her  sister  Wilhelmine,  could  sing  in  a 
masterly  manner  from  Tancred  or  a  Stabat  Mater,  or  the  whole  choir 
could  unite  in  the  German  and  Swiss  national  songs,  or  they  read 


APPENDIX.  535 

aloud,  or  played  charades,  or  danced,  or  did  all  at  once,  for  each 
took  part  in  all ;  or  if  one  wished  to  devote  himself  to  one  alone, 
there  was  no  restraint,-  but  perfect  freedom  in  the  choice  of  joys. 
Flowers  of  joy  are  no  artificial  growth,  but  the  sensitive-plant  of 
feeling. 

"But  I  must  excuse  the  absence  of  what  every  less  cheerful 
society  possesses,  namely,  cards.  I  will  not  deny  that  the  higher 
we  rise  the  more  indispensable  they  become,  and  that  where  a  king 
is  present  the  four  card-kings  are  either  regents  or  vassals,  for  with- 
out the  four  cardinal  colors  the  heavenly  chart  of  social  pleasure 
cannot  be  illuminated.  Also,  the  noble  cannot  dispense  with  his 
card-table,  as  a  free  table  of  gain,  where  the  whole  collection  of 
friends  sit  at  their  tables  and  pray  mutually,  as  the  people  in  Blan- 
kensea,  by  Altona,  do  in  the  church,  that  God  would  shipwreck  the 
one  for  the  advantage  of  the  other.  But  how  were  mixed  society 
held  together  without  cards  1  The  card  is  the  olive-leaf,  or  sticking- 
plaster  of  secretly  angry  people,  who  otherwise  would  wound  each 
other  with  something  sharper  than  trumps.  For  to  men  that  have 
nothing  to  say,  at  least  to  women,  they  present  cards  out  of  tender- 
ness, as  a  passport,  or  a  dispensation-bill  from  conversation,  and 
thus  they  can  pay  their  debts  of  wit  in  good  card-paper  during  the 
evening.  But  a  quadruple  alliance  of  the  four  card-kings  against 
ennui  and  peevishness  was  not  necessary  in  the  Tetrarchate  of 
Lobichau. 

"  Every  evening  the  beautiful  world,  or  a  part  of  it,  danced  for 
some  hours,  and  the  other  part  sat  and  looked  on.  Frequently  they 
chose  hastily  a  charming  princely  dancer,  and  placed  her  at  the 
Vienna  Piano,  where  she  formed,  alone,  a  complete  orchestra,  till 
another  took  her  place. 

"  The  12th  of  September,  the  harvest-festival,  was  also  made  a 
spiritual  harvest.  A  valuable  altar-service  of  gold  and  silver  ves- 
sels, with  a  new  altar-cloth,  the  Duchess  Dorothea  had  from  the 
first  intended  for  the  harvest-festival,  when  in  the  afternoon  all  the 
guests  collected  in  the  little  friendly  church  to  hear  the  harvest- 
sermon.  Besides,  the  four  princesses  had  not  waited  for  such  an 
occasion  to  visit  the  church  for  the  first  time.  A  warm,  pure  lovo 
of  religion  ennobled  both  mother  and  daughters.  In  this  women 
differ  from  men  in  the  most  decided  manner,  especially  in  the  higher 
ranks,  which  always  upon  their  journeys  visit  the  churches  to  per- 
torm  their  devotions  before  the  pictures,  pillars,  and  colored  glass 


536  APPENDIX. 

cf  the  windows,  so  that  they  often  interrupt  a  full  church  in  their 
singing  and  preaching.  Therefore,  as  in  French  cities,  a  bell  is 
rung  before  the  Porte-Dieu,  called  the  Jew's  ijell,  to  inform  the  Jews 
of  the  entrance  of  the  crucifix,  and  frighten  them  awaj',  —  thus  for 
travellers  and  connoisseurs,  before  thej  enter  a  church  on  Sundays, 
a  bell  should  be  rung,  that  they  may  not  unawares  disturb  a»  whole 
church  in  their  devotion. 

"  In  the  Lobichau  church  there  was  devotion,  pious  joy,  and 
gratitude  to  Heaven,  that  had  given  them  the  rich  harvest  and  the 
benevolent  princess.  This  gratitude  looked  beautiful  in  so  many 
country  faces.  Many  of  the  old  heads  were  worthy  of  a  painter,  — 
I  had  nearly  written, — as  if  the  artist  himself  had  not  been  made 
by  the  original  Artist,  whom  a  Raphael  had  earlier  to  thank  for  his 
own  enchanting  face  than  for  his  painted  fixces.  An  hour  after  the 
service  was  ended  a  more  joyful  and  beautiful  procession  than  God 
usually  receives  (for  whom,  among  us,  there  are  only  sorrowful  and 
praying  processions)  brought  the  princess  the  signs  of  grateful  love 
and  joy. 

"  They  collected  with  music  before  the  castle,  upon  whose  bal- 
cony the  Princess  stood  surrounded  by  her  friends,  —  boys  and 
girls,  virgins  and  youths,  and  old  men,  with  wreaths  of  flowers 
upon  their  instruments  of  agriculture,  and  cried  aloud  their  love- 
and  joy.  The  Duchess  threw  them,  not  merely  glances,  but  words 
of  her  own  gratitude  and  joy,  which,  for  true  men  like  them,  were 
more  acceptable  than  presents  of  money,  stamped  with  the  crown. 

"  The  young  men  looked  up  delighted,  forgot  the  gift  in  the  giver, 
and  looked  their  thanks  for  a  second.  Some  of  the  ancients  brought 
their  speeches,  and  a  printed  poem,  with  freer  bearing  tlian,  alas! 
the  learned  of  middle  rank  can  usually  command.  They  received 
from  the  Duchess,  with  grateful  modesty,  the  offer  of  a  free  ball  at 
the  Wetihhaus,  but  declined  it,  as  they  would  rather  themselves  pay 
the  last  joy  of  their  harvest-festival. 

"  I  here  add  my  harvest-sermon,  as  a  thanksgiving  to  my  hostess, 
composed  in  tlie  chapel  of  my  sleeping-chamber,  on  the  15th  of 
September,  in  a  dream. 

"  '  My  devout  hearers,  from  Kurland  and  Germany.'  —  So  far  the 
beginning  of  the  sermon,  —  for,  alas  !  in  awaking  I  had  completely 
forgotten  the  introduction,  and  the  thirty-two  parts  into  which  the 
sermon  was  divided  ;  only  the  application,  or  the  iisus  epanortlioticus, 
remained  with  me,  and  sounded  thus  :  '  I  have,  then,  dearest  flock, 


APPENDIX.  537 

in  the  thirty-two  parts  of  my  sermon,  shown  for  what  harvest  of 
sheaves  and  clusters  of  joy  we  have  to  thank  our  revered  Dorothea 
that  we  have  enjoyed  the  highest  freedom  from  all  the  bandages 
of  court  restraint,  for  the  bonds  of  love,  in  reason  of  their  lightness, 
are  counted  for  nothing ;  our  fetters  have  been  only  formed  of  flow- 
ers ;  not  in  the  sweat  of  our  faces,  but  in  the  smiles  of  the  same, 
have  we  all  gathered  our  joy-sheaves,  from  hence  to  Tannefeld ; 
and  the  preacher  himself  returns  to  Bayreuth,  overpacked  with  the 
most  respectable  tithes. 

"  '  Beloved  children  of  my  flock,  whether  in  Lobichau  or  Tanne- 
feld, consider  the  happy  neighborhood  of  the  mother  church  to  the 
filial  church  yet  more  attentively,  whereof  in  the  twenty-fifth  division 
of  my  discourse  I  have  already  hinted.  In  heaven,  as  astronomy 
teaches  us,  the  suns  are  so  far  apart  that  they  do  not  disturb  the 
attraction  of  each  other's  planets  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  Lobichau 
and  Tannefeld  the  neighborhood  of  the  different  suns  increases  the 
attraction  of  the  revolving  comets ;  and  the  worshippers  of  the  four 
stars  of  beauty  maintain,  after  present  astronomers,  that  they  con- 
sist of  Dorothea,  Johanne,  Pauline,  and  Wilhelmine '" 

Only  one  more  of  Paul's  thoughts,  in  his  chapel  at  Lobichau. 
"  The  more  tenderly  and  warmly  one  loves,  so  much  more  does  he 
discover  in  himself  defects  rather  than  charms,  that  render  him  not 
worthy  of  the  beloved.  Thus  are  our  little  faults  first  made  known 
to  us  when  we  have  ascended  the  higher  steps  of  religion.  The 
more  we  satisfy  the  demands  of  conscience  the  stronger  they  become. 
Love  and  religion  arc  here  like  the  sun.  By  mere  daylight  and 
torchlight  the  air  of  the  apartment  is  pure  and  undisturbed  by  a 
single  particle,  but  let  in  a  sunbeam,  and  how  much  dust  and  motes 
are  hovering  about ! " 

I  have  given  these  long  extracts  as  a  fair  specimen  of  Jean  Paul'8 
most  familiar  and  trifling  manner  of  writing. 


53?  APPENDIX. 


VII. 

AS  the  last  sheets  of  the  third  edition  of  this  work  were  passing 
through  the  press,  the  author  received  from  Rev.  Ouakles 
T.  Brooks  the  following  interesting  document. 

The  venerable  Gleim  having  written  the  anonymous  letter  to 
Eichter  given  in  the  text,  and  enclosing  a  very  timely  present  of 
fifty  dollars,  Jean  Paul  published  the  following  answer,  in  the  form 
of  an  intelligence-leaf  to  the  Flower-pieces. 

"  Hof,  in  Voigtland,  July  5, 1796. 

"  I  beg  permission  or  pardon  of  my  readers  for  printing  here 
something  which  does  not  concern  them  all,  but  only  the  single 
reader,  who,  under  the  name  of  Septimus  Fixlein,  wrote  to  me  from 
Shuran  on  the  23d  of  May,  1796. 

"  Too  good  Septimus  !  I  entreat  thee  earnestly,  write  me  thy 
true  name ;  for  here,  on  the  open  sea  of  the  world,  amid  a  hundred 
ships,  I  cannot  scream  to  thee  through  the  speaking-trumpet  of  the 
press  what  I  had  much  rather  whisper  to  thy  face  and  to  tliy  breast. 
Imitate  as  much  as  you  will  the  Great  Spirit,  only  not  in  being  in- 
visible. Thy  real  name,  I  assure  thee,  will  not  disturb  our  relation. 
The  mantle  of  love  hides  all  faults,  but  must  it  remain  itself  hidden 
like  a  fault  ?  Write  me  at  least,  in  thine  own  handwriting,  some 
address,  under  which  I  may  safely  bring  before  thee  some  words  of 
my  soul.  If,  however,  thou  shouldst  never  ask  after  my  intelli- 
gence-leaf, and  shouldst  remain  forever  veiled  in  mystery,  then  take 
here  my  thanks  for  all  indications  of  thy  beautiful  spirit.  May  thy 
life  turn  round  like  a  world  in  gentle  alternations,  now  to  the  sun- 
light of  reality,  now  to  the  moonlight  of  poesy,  —  and  in  all  thy 
clouds  may  there  be  only  evening  redness,  or  a  rainbow,  but  no 
tempest,  —  and  when  thou  art  happy,  then  may  thy  genius  remind 
thee  of  the  23d  of  May ;  and  when  thou  art  sad,  may  some  good 
man  send  thee  a  letter  full  of  love,  such  as  thou  hast  written  to  me. 
Yes,  may  he  even  write  under  it  his  real  name. 

"J.  P.  F.  RICHTER." 

So  much  as  the  above  stood  twenty  years  ago  on  the  last  leaf 
of  the  first  edition  of  this  story.    The=e  lines  might,  as  well  as  many 


APPENDIX. 


S39 


others,  have  been  left  out  of  the  second  edition,  to  sink  into  oblivion, 
but  there  is  so  weighty  a  reason  at  hand  for  their  remaining  on  the 
surface,  that  they  ought  rather,  in  all  the  future  editions,  to  swim 
ahead  in  the  preface  of  the  fourth  volume  ;  and  that  reason  is  simply 
that  Septimus  Fixlein  was  no  other  than  old  Gleim,  whom  I  wished 
to  thank  as  an  unknown  benefactor  for  a  pecuniary  present  season- 
able to  my  then  existing  necessities. 

Subsequently  I  became  more  nearly  acquainted  with  this  genuine 
and  great  original  German,  face  to  face,  as  well  as  deed  to  deed ; 
and  I  heartily  longed  for  the  place  in  my  autobiography  where  I 
can  mention  him  more  at  length. 

Bayreuth,  March  7, 1818. 


THE  END. 


Cambridge  :   Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


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